Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Good evening and welcome to our uh Tuesday, March 24th town council meeting. Uh before I call the meeting to order, just a couple of reminders. If you want to join the uh the meeting via Zoom, you can do so by going to basalt.net, click on the agendas and minutes tab and go to the March 24th meeting packet there and you'll find instructions to join via Zoom, which will allow you to make public comment if uh you're so inclined. And with that, I will call the meeting to order. Pam, will you please call the role? Absolutely. Let's begin with Angela Anderson here. Rick Stevens here. Hannah Berman here. Angel Dup preart here. Ryan Slack here. David Knight here. Deer Schindler

here. Motion motion. Everyone is here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up we have item two which is our consent agenda consisting of item 2A the minutes from February 24th, 2026. I'd uh approve or I someone wants to make a motion. Go for it. Uh mayor I move the town council over the consent agenda items as presented. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you very much. Uh item three is our call to the public. And uh before we get started, just some quick ground rules.

Limit your comments three minutes and address your comments directly to me. Identify yourself by name and address when making comments and be sure to sign in in the back of the room. Uh try to be courteous, civil, and constructive. and uh town council will make no decision nor take action except to direct the town manager. I know we have uh some public hearings on the agenda for this evening. Um if you want to speak on any of those topics, uh please wait till that public hearing so your comments can be linked to uh to that topic. Um so with that, if any other topics uh welcome to come up to the podium. Hi, my name is Stacy Stokes. I live at 221 East View Lane and I am here to attempt to implore you to make that a one-way street going into Southside with a five or six foot concrete pedestrian stroller, bike path for everyone to get in and out of that neighborhood safely. I have watched multiple times where children have almost been hit, families have almost been hit. That's a wonderful access for people to leave Stoz Mill and Southside and walk into town and take their strollers and bikes. High schoolers as well because they use um Somerset. That's very dangerous. So, it's my opinion, my neighbors opinion, there's a couple of them, that the speed limit should be 15 because that technically is our driveway with either speed bumps or speed dips and then you have the big goodsiz pedestrian access so that if in if in fact there is an emergency that can be two, maybe even three lanes to get people out. That being said, I would like to segue to the fact that I have found out over the last month, so I don't have a whole lot of information because I was quite shocked that there is supposed to be another exit out of Still Mill Southside in the business center near um Big O Tires, I guess

something. My husband understands it better, but he couldn't come to go to get people out of that area in 282. And right now with the amount of density that has been approved over the last few years in Basalt, I've only lived here a few years. I grew up in the valley, but I've only been in Basalt a couple of years. Um, and what I'm seeing is kind of scary because if there is ever a fire, where there were fires when I was a kid in that grass, people can't get out. There is no way in hell that people can get out of the high school, out of Stats Mill, and out of Southside in one direction. Even if you open few lane in two directions, it comes right into the highway and people can't get out and it's not safe and it's not fair to the people that just want a home. And I mean, my god, they live on top of each other. It's a really cute neighborhood, but it it could get really really bad. And I just feel like you guys have a responsibility. I've heard it's cost prohibitive. My taxes are cost prohibitive at this point, but I have to pay them. And I feel like you guys really really have a responsibility to the people who live in this town to be able to get out if something goes wrong. At least do the best possible thing you can for the residents of this town and also at the same time create a place where people have easy access to walk and not use their cars all the time and take the bikes and ride bikes safely and not come through a daycare and not get hit by a car. I mean, what I have seen, and I know the cops have been there, and I know this and that and the whole other thing. I see it all day long. I work from my house. My kitchen looks right down on all three spots. I've seen accidents. I've seen frightening things with children. I've seen families be walking and someone coming around the corner and I hear on the rocks. Things need to happen. They really need to happen. And and I know that part of it has to do with 555 Basalt Avenue. I don't think the whole few lane thing should wait. I think that we're coming

up on summer. We've got concerts and all the other things. And I don't want to get redundant and ramble. I think you've got my point. And I really think that you have a financial responsibility and a safety responsibility to the residents who live over on that side of the highway. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Anyone else? Hi, I'm Jillian Cops. I own Mountain Greenery over on Southside Drive, 185 Southside. And I've been to most of the meetings. I think I missed the first one. But my big concern is traffic. Um, I think that it puts a lot of pressure on Basalt Avenue. We were able to originally get that right-hand designated turn lane which works out well. But I think that again it's our only it's the only point on all of 82 that there's only one access from Basalt Avenue to to the highway. Even old Snow Mass you can go through the post office in an emergency. There's nowhere else on the entire highway where there's only one access point and that seems dangerous to me as well. um with all the new developments at some point they're going to have to either expand the high school or build I don't know if they'll build a new one but there's a lot of pressure on the infrastructure and um I would like to see another traffic study which we wrote a letter about um our HOA I'm the vice president of the HOA and um I think to do it on peak season both winter and summer is really important but let's see what's really going on because they presented their case that they didn't think there would be more traffic with this new development than Meyers currently has and it's possible but I would like to see the city do something about that and and you know another access point agreeing with Stacy. So thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments and and both of those I suspect pertain somewhat to 555 over there. I would encourage you to make what comments again when we get to that part of the meeting and that public hearing so we can have that on the record for that you know for that uh process. Sure. Anyone else?

All right. Let's move on then to mayor and council reports and comments. Floor is open. I have a public service announcement for Mother's Day lacrosse tournament at Crown Mountain, which is bringing about 90 teams into town for the weekend. So, order your pizzas early and go grocery shopping on Thursday before

May 9th and 10th. Yeah. I'd just like to extend a shout out to the chief, the new chief Munch, and just the police force and just all our staff. I'm sure Justin public works has been working their butt off with everything going on in our new weather landscape. And um it's just great. We're so lucky to have an amazing staff and grateful for everyone here. Anyone else?

Yeah, I wanted to uh you know just remind everybody to to get out and vote uh for the upcoming town election and to wish the candidates that are participating uh best of luck. Nice comment. Thank you. What else? I don't have anything. So, I will move on to item four, our mayor and council reports and comments. I'm sorry, item five, manager's report. Gloria.

Yeah. So, the update on the Midland Streetscape lighting is in your packet as requested. Um, and so I wanted to point that out. Also wanted to point out we do have construction going on Emma Bridge. Um, and so that'll be for the next four months. We're trying to keep it open as much as possible for the kids to be able to get to school and back. Um, and also announced that the Basalt Police Community uh the Basalt Police Community Police Academy is um going to be June 18th through October 15th. So, um that's open and people can sign up. um they can either go to um I think the the easiest way is to go to the police Facebook page and sign up from there. So um and then also we received an email from Alan uh with Mountain Voice Project about contributing to another purchase of a mobile home park in Glenwood Springs. Um if the council and I I did put the information on your it's called Cavern Springs. It's the outlook. Yep. That paper right there. Um, and so if the council is interested, I can request that they present at your next meeting. Um, if you are not interested, I can let them know. Um, I also received a follow-up message before the meeting from John Fox Rubin clarifying that about 5% of Cabin Springs residents work exclusively in basalt. So, wanted to get direction on this um item.

Thoughts? I I I know both of us different reasons. The West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition and I I think a lot of you know the the concern is the amount of money that municipalities have in order to uh to kind of fund things like this is not obviously it's not infinite and it's actually you know was pretty big stretch last time. Um, so I unless there's a way we could do it, I would assume we can't do it. We need to like politely tell them that. What was their ask?

About 500. Well, they asked to match what Carbondale did and I think Carbondale did 600. Oh, 510. Yeah, 510. A lot of money.

Do you guys this mobile home parks? It's like behind the Restore as you go down to Glenwood. So it's kind of between it's c kind of cattle creekish area Thunder river market area. Um I know that yeah there is a significant gap between the loan amount they'll get through this soul and the amount they need to raise to kind of yeah to meet that gap. Uh, Carbondale's, as Gloria said, is participating and I think they're making the rounds. Snow Mass was participating for 600. Eagle count, Eagle County is not participating. Um, and I think Mountain, West Mountain is now kind of getting involved to help.

We There's a meeting tomorrow. There's a meeting tomorrow. So, I spoke to Gloria earlier today and so I'll share with her what I I'll share with you what I shared with her, which is that this was discussed at the our regularly scheduled board meeting for West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition two weeks ago. Um, and then we have kind of a special board meeting tomorrow to further discuss it and truly determine what the coalition's involvement will be. Um, I think David and I are of the opinion that the the coalition does not have the capacity to to make the same lift that they did, right? Last time. Yeah.

Um, it was I mean it was all consuming for the coalition and our very limited staff, which is just one person. So, yeah. Um, I mean, I don't I don't I don't see a harm in having them, you know, come present and and hearing more from them unless today we are in agreement that it's just going to be a hard no. In which case, it would be a waste of their time.

I don't want to waste their time, but I I would like to know what they're up to, what what's going on. I don't think information could hurt, but I wouldn't want to waste their time because I see that we're not going to be able to make that same kind of effort. for our financial outlay. But if they wanted to just come and keep us updated on their progress, I'm I'm open to that. What's the total they're looking for? They need 10 million 10 million to even get to the point where Thistle Rock will

look at give them the balance of in the loan and work with them. It's it's unfortunate there's not more money in the public space out there because this is probably one of the most efficient ways to um fund affordable housing. Yeah, it's it's development neutral. It's very costeffective. There's definitely essential workers and people who are core to our community, but this the amount of money that's out there um is is just it can't match kind of the buying power of the organizations that are going out and trying to buy these places. I mean, that's kind of the long and the short of it.

And and the number of parks that

Yeah. that are out there that are targets for private buyers that need to be preserved. Um, you know, I'll echo what David said. If I I wish that we had two $300 million to go around and buy, you know, help the the owners buy all the parks so that they could all be resident owned. Um but without state and federal involvement, which it's our understanding is not going to happen, um there's very little that our our limited resources in our valley can can accomplish sadly and still accomplish the goals that we as individual municipalities have set forth for ourselves. So, do you have do you need more direction? We need we do are you about uh are we a hard no or not? I I I give I'd be open to giving them the the me the the platform to to get out there and make a plea, but I think we need to set the expectation that

like we do not have the money. Okay. 5% $500,000 like we don't have $500,000. We defin I mean I think we need to be clear on that. I mean I wish it wasn't that way but I mean I think that's where we're at.

Well and you said Jeff or Gloria you said that you got confirmation that it's 5% of the residents which it said 300 residents that that must include children. So let's assume 200 adults of which 5% would be 10 people are working in basalt. Um which sadly is a pretty low number. Yeah, I I am still just diving into our affordable housing funding. Um and so I I'm not comfortable with this request at this point. Um, and I expressed that to our managers group when we were talking about it. So, but I definitely wanted to bring it up to you all for direction.

Just a thought to add to that. Maybe if West Mountain decides to jump into this and really be a fundraiser, then at that point they decide to come to council. But if West Mountain isn't going to jump into it, it might be hard to Yeah, we'll know more tomorrow once everybody gets here. Just for clarity, I am there on behalf of RAFTA. Did y'all right now defer? I think Gloria is, but I'm there on behalf of RAFTA. That's the only reason I have

involved. So um and that's the one across from the restore. Yeah. So my concerns that that's not um the same as the one we participated in as far as infrastructure, you know, uh the nature of the community. It's it's It's close to transit, but it's not in a sense. So, I think there's a lot of things that are below the radar that people are going to have to finance and fund there. It's a pretty high density area, too.

Look at all the cars that are parked along there most days. It's um it's a different it's an opportunity, but it's a different opportunity than one that was in the Mid Valley Water and Sanitation District and serviced by utilities and a raft bus stop and all the rest of that. It's just it's not an urban area. It's a fringe kind of. So, it's kind of tough and financially it's we ask

Yeah. Is there is there any state legislation? I know state legislation is what gave municipalities or not municipalities but the residents the right to buy it, but if there were to be more legislation that would help curb these prices or give people more time to fund raise, I'd say like I'd be all for sending a letter, but I I just don't see where we have the money. Yeah. So, I I don't I don't want to speak too much on it, but I do know that after the last mobile home park purchase that West Mountain helped with, um the coalition did draft a kind of detailed white paper memo and sent it to the state and said, "Here's what we learned through this, and here are suggestions on um some legislative changes that would help protect these parks from this kind of, you know, I mean, it's not quite predatory behavior, but I mean, they're targeted.

Um yeah. Um and it's my understanding and you were in that meeting that a lot of what they suggested was kind of I don't I don't I don't know if it was dismissed, but they they didn't get too far. They weren't really listened to. So, I mean, I don't know if the wheel needs to be squeakier or but but the coalition certainly is trying to Yeah. you know, tackle that to the extent that that they have the resources. Yeah, that's good to hear that they wrote it, not good to hear that it was dismissed. Yeah, because there has been I think um what's her name in Velasco Velasco?

Yeah, Elizabeth Glasco I think did recently bring something to the floor, but it like didn't include a lot of what Betsyrum and April had, you know, suggested from their learnings. And so it was a a little disappointing is my understanding. Yeah. Okay. But it seems like they're reading the CML stuff and just kind of the tea leaves of what's going on at the state level that more of the focus is around building affordable housing incre increasing supply that way. So I think a lot of the um just seems like what the emphasis is at state level versus existing housing.

So it's sounding like we support them but not financially. And if there's a way we can support them that's not financially, we'd be up for that. Yes. Okay. There there was a great documentary shown at Takal during that fundraising effort for the guys down here

that detailed out a three or four year process that a community went through down on the I25 corridor and didn't get to where they wanted to. But it was interesting how much bureaucracy they ran into over the course of three or four years and rents go up and the whole nine yards it was brutal. Um so at that level we could probably do something but talking to whoever at the state and you know the other thing is we don't have yet a congruent policy for affordable housing in the Roaring Fork Valley. you know, when I look at what's going on uh with community housing versus affordable housing like arch dascese versus what a resort town looks at, it's a completely different ballgame. So, it's it's very difficult and everybody needs funding for those all those rungs on the ladder that are now from one through five. It's like one through 15 until you get to five. It's no longer one through 10 where you have that rung. You have missing rungs everywhere from that first level all the way up to third. Little mini steps along the way and it's it's really difficult. Hopefully that's something that West Mountain can work on this try to figure out how we're going to do this in a regional level. And this same thing looking at transportation nodes on the highway 80 corridor Aspen Village Philips mobile home park all those are able to be financed by Valley. So that's a big deal in my opinion versus you go 25 miles away 30 miles away cash floating around. That's what I we need to come at that pretty hard I think and we have our own

projects to fund. So our contribution to right across the street here was what 17 deed restricted and 20 RORO. I don't know what percentage of the workforce will be in basalt but we'll find out. I have I have another question maybe not related but uh raw water we were asking about the salt springs. Yeah. So we'll have a presentation. Did we schedule the end of April? End of April. End of April with Mid Valley Metro as well here um for you all. So okay we are working through that right now.

Is it tank overflowing up there or is it keeping up on the hill? I mean, quickly. Yeah. I would I would just say, Rick, we're we're monitoring what's we have a meter from the Basalt Springs and Lexinger Springs that comes through into the plant and we have not seen at this point a significant reduction or major change in the amount of water that's coming to the water treatment plant. Good. Thanks. Anything else? So that is all I had on my manager's report unless you all had questions on the staff reports which you just received

at this point my end. Um so let's go ahead and move on. Thanks for that good good information. Um next up we have item 6A which is our first presentation on assault connect. And I need to grab my iPad. Oh yeah. I left my bag in there. Okay. You guys can just tee up.

All right. Um I'll team this up. Um, so I'm putting this all before you because I wanted to ensure that you were aware that um that the OSTG, the ozone season transit grant, um, is that was covering the 10:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. time frame June through August um, in 2025 is not available for 2026. Um, so what that means is about $37,648. Um, if we wanted to cover that time frame ourselves. Um, and so I put some numbers in here as far as where this money comes from. It comes from our green team unrestricted. Right now, 40% of that 611,000 budgeted for um Assault uh Connect comes from RAFTA. Um so that's actually been reduced down from 50% in previous years. Um so we're subsidizing that with the Lake Modern Rita in the amount of 93,000 right now. Um and that's just for our base services. Um, and that doesn't include the 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. time frame, June through August. And so what I why I'm putting this in front of you is if you do if you were aware of this first of all in the budgeting process, I wanted to make sure um because it would be a significant um service cut. we could right now we have scheduling of the drivers and um all of our advertising going out. Um so that's kind of why why the deadline is now um to see if you wanted to take more money from the Lake Modern Rita um to possibly fund the 10 a.m. to 3M time frame for

those three months again this year. Um so wanted to have that discussion with you all. All right. Thoughts? This doesn't in involve any expansion of the services beyond town limits, right? Not at this point. I'm looking into that right now though. What that what that looks like. James, I don't know if this Can we put things like this up on the screen, too? Sure. Okay. Thanks. Um, just a quick second.

I think it's a great service and it's worth preserving. Um, and we should figure it out. Thanks. Others other thoughts. That 37k is just for summer. That would be for the additional service of the 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. June through August for those three months. Just let that grant cover before kids are out of school. I think people love the service. I would just like a deeper

Sorry, I'm sure they'll yell at me. Um I would like a deeper dive. I did go through the numbers. They're they're pretty good, but like I just worry we're subsidizing like super riders or super users as I would like to say. And so I would just like to have a deeper dive into that just to make sure that we're not like it unique visitors to the service. So, how many like because we we see riders, we see the the service is well used, well-liked. I just wonder in the whole service too because I've heard from some people of just what is our end goal? What is it's a great service, but I think we could do a smaller deeper dive into it. I I had the same questions because I saw 461 unique writer accounts. But of those writer accounts, I know that like I'm one of them, but I've never actually used it. I signed up thinking I might and then I and I haven't. And so kind of to Ryan's point is is it primarily a hundred of those that are using 80% of the, you know, taking 80% of the rides. And then it does beg the question while it is a great service and it is well-loved is it well-loved by 100 people and for that the other 44und residents of Basalt are paying the price. Um, I I think those that's those questions are worth asking. And then I would go back to the original intent of of the Basalt Connect, which this is more of like a clarifying question because I wasn't here when when the service started. Was was that to be the kind of last mile transport, right? to to link between,

you know, say like Elk Run, which is not particularly close to a bus stop, to a bus stop. So that then I am going from my house to the bus stop and then taking the bus into Aspen. How many of those rides is doing that versus taking me to Willlets to dinner because I can't get an Uber? And I think I think that was also in the mix of what it was for. It was a circulator. Um, it was intended as a circulator and last first and last mile. Okay. Yeah. So, it wasn't it was an either or. Yeah. I wanted I think that's what the RAFTA grant was based upon. Yeah.

So, 40% of the rides were that last mile. That's that's really how we came up with I believe that's how that funding 20% now. I think it's was now it says it's 26%. 26 and I I I think it's Rafta's intention to continue to ratchet that down or make it at least commensurate with the amount that's going to spots. Yeah.

Um which we I think we Yeah, they'll leave it at that. Um, I I would just say if we're going to start making some of those comparisons, we should probably look at it like against other benchmarks of transit because I think what what I can't recall the numbers off the top of my head, but it is like per ride can be quite expensive, can be a concentrated group of riders met. Some of it's I think the nature of mass transit. So, I just want to make sure that we're not that we're comparing it to uh you know, a good frame of reference as far as uh how many unique riders we should have, etc. Um but uh and I think today we're just talking about the 10 to three is what we really got to make the uh give direction on.

And this is just 10 to three this summer. Just this summer. And so yeah, this wouldn't be a sustainable path forward to keep using the RITA fund to subsidize this, but it is an option for us. I did put in your packet kind of what what RITA can be used for what. Um, and so it wouldn't take from the general fund, but Lake Modern's the only it's the end of March to me. It's it's the end of March. Like summer's around the corner. I think we should figure it out. you do the um use the money you proposed but knowing that we're not be able to do it in subsequent years unless we figure something else out. Yeah, we're too close in. I I I would agree with that and I I just think that we need to make sure that we prioritize a larger discussion about yes

a permanent funding method if it's RAFA's intention to ratchet it down. We've lost this grant. Are there other grants out there? Do we charge um do we start charging for service? I mean RAFA charges for service for their buses. So does Glenwood charges for this, right? And then and then al honestly we've had a lot of requests to expand the service area to Holland Hills and to neighborhoods that are right outside of our, you know, direct town boundaries. If we charge for service, it might allow us to do that. Um, so okay.

Yeah, I'm kind of headed down a pilot program for the summer months of how you get a eighth grader from Elabel to the pool and how you get a kid from the pool to Crown Mountain, you know, during those hours and seeing if how much is it going to cost to extend it another mile, you know, in each direction to do that. And um there's data that shows these kids that are in that median, you know, middle age group, middle school age group, don't have access to recreation because they don't have good transit. And maybe even throwing a bike rack on a couple of those wouldn't hurt, you know, for somebody that's coming into town or coming from town to Crown so they can take their bike down there, things like that. Well, those we cycles are meant to kind of

Yeah, but they're not going to ride in the bike park though. The bike park is going off now during the summer. Oh. Meaning they need to get there with their bikes.

They could ride their bike there. I I just feel like we're we're in this subsidization. I agree with it, but who are the users? How many total users? I think 37,000 is fine for this time, but I think it needs to be a deeper dive into who exactly is using this program. How much are we using this program? And and I feel like some of that's lacking in this. I think they give good writership data, but there's there are super users in there that are skewing the data. But even in this data, we I mean I'm inclined to go ahead and say yes to the 37,000 because July and August are the highest months for wrership, you know, at least last year. But I'd like to know what of those riders of those rides what was from 10 to three

is kind of all together. But I do think we should look at how we can have people pay for it because people seem to love that use it, love it, and are willing to pay for it. So, it sounds like I should come back to you all with a resolution to approve this one-time funding this year and then schedule out a work session with Basalt Connect um to kind of talk through our options there while Doug and I have been doing some research on the background on charging for the service.

And so, the avoid dup that's that's correct. Okay. to avoid duplicative efforts too. Um RAFTA, a subcommittee of the board last year did do a first and last mile um but a bunch of work for several months. So um I would check Paul Hamilton talking with him. That's that was like the I don't remember Paul being in it. Um he might have been I would check I would check with Kurt.

Find out. Yeah, but that there's a there's an output of that that probably answers a lot of the stuff that could help kind of measure some of the things that were being pointed out like whether that's right or whether or not right is but whether it kind of conforms to like norms as far as this kind of transit or not, you know. So, does Salt Wreck have any data on who comes from where to do swimming lessons or soccer programs or Oh, that's Matt. He he has it. Yeah. You said Glenwood charges for this. A dollar a ride. You like wave it for kids or what they charge and like how

you should look at how people pay and it's probably Apple pay or something typically. Yeah. They take cash too. Take cash. Yeah. I mean transaction costs are very high as a percentage of revenue. Take a dollar. Why were last July and August so much higher than prior years? And like I said in there, it could have been because of our concert series. Um, but we don't have that data yet on like what the timing is. I did ask for the data for the timing, but they weren't able to supply that. So, okay. Um, I'm hoping that giving more lead time and having them here, we can kind of have that discussion as a as a board.

Totally. Because I think the benefit of like bringing people to the concert so we're not messing with parking so if people can have a beer get home whatever bring their kids out is great but yeah getting a better sense of what is the wrership what's purpose could those people pay a buck because we have to do something differently because right now we're not on a sustainable path well and so I mean even without this midday thing because of the

I would also have everyone look at the numbers even if you charge a dollar. We're not even we're barely 6% of what we're paying on this. So like we can't create this like we really have to look at the users of this. I love the service. I've used it. I can move a car here and there. I can it helps me. But like I I think we're I think we're paying a lot of money for super users and we should we should really dig down into these numbers because they're they're more than I would bet money they're more than we could imagine. And that's not bad either. I I want to support the citizens that are using this, but at what cost? Half a million dollars is a lot of money.

All right. Anything else on this one before we move on to the financials? All right, Doug, you're up. Item 6B is 2025 fourth quarter financials.

Real quick, Doug, I might cry because this is one of my this is my last financial update. Well, you can listen in. You know, you can like dial in. Oh, no. I'm in it. I'm in. I just want to tell you that I'm I'm recording them for you. I'm I'm very these milestones are I just I'm grateful for you and the team that's all I wanted to state I only got one more meeting like what there's a support group on the other ones but I won't feel the same you're saying in the packet I just wanted you guys to know well I'm just waiting for the long you know first time caller longtime listener I want wait for that call just like I'm

so there's a support group for you out there. Listen, I it's Rick. I'm going to call. It's just me. Deer and Sorry. I love you, buddy. You're not going to call in.

Deer, you didn't have the old update. So, look. All right. He's not calling in. Okay. So, all right. Let's start off like we have in the past um with the uh this is a presentation that has been done. We have another one we're going to show you and I'll let uh Gloria um take the lead on the explaining how we did version two. But this is what we've been doing. We start off with a graphical illustration of our sources of income in the general fund along with our department expenses and it's graphically display displayed here. You'll see here in the blue, this is our sales tax. This is our principal. I I'll be doing with the red here and then James for people calling in like Ryan will be able to follow because he'll toggle over um the various numbers that we go through here. But sales tax still principally is our principal source of revenue. Uh followed by property tax, which is 15% of our revenue. Again, this is just general fund revenue. This isn't total revenue um of of sales tax or property tax for that matter. And then we have licenses and permits is principally building permits in this green shaded area. And then uh the next higher category here 76 is our intergovernmental revenue which is really our grants and some of our other receipts um highway use tax, road and bridge taxes and whatnot. And then last is the other is the 6.9. That's principally our um u interest income. So again that's graphically illustrating our rele our income. You look at the uh department expenditures typically uh the blue which is public works the red police typically that's over half of the expenses of the general fund. uh that was distorted somewhat or diluted somewhat in that the administrative area was higher uh this last year because we

had given we had funded the mobile home park $600,000 for the purchase of those two mobile home parks. So typically that's that's not as high uh bless you as a percentage of uh expenses. Um, so let's go to the next page here, James. And this is u super hard to read here, so you have to look at on your deck. Can we make that a little bigger? I will. Yes.

All right. So, you'll see here the sales tax really is flattening out. Uh, property tax was the first line. Um, third line down is our sales tax. This isn't total sales tax. This is just sales tax to general fund. Remember that u for every dollar of trade that is transacted here in the basalt there's three pennies of sales tax is generated. Two cents hits the general fund and another penny hits the restricted fund. So this is just general fund revenue.

And you'll see here that that number is really flat. And I will tell you that I look back uh at the 2022 levels of sales tax overall this is going to be a good report and these will be what audited. This will this the numbers will be audited. Um but in 2022 our total sales tax u taxes being remitted by the state along with Pitkin County and Eagle County and whatever we received from our marijuana receipts was 10,500,000. In this current year, it was 10,300,000. So over a three-year period, we have experienced no growth in our sales tax and that is our principal source of revenue. So that should that's just caution cautionary that our number is flattening out and we are going to have an airport closure here coming up in uh 2027 which could impact uh the sales tax could it could be positive but it could also be negative. And I'm thinking of all of the various hotels up in Aspen are going to be not all of them but I've heard a lot of of of them are going to be closing for renovations and whatnot. it might be reason for people to you know frequent basalt or it could be but people just don't come and I know picking county is uh progress uh projecting a drop in sales tax and I will tell you anecdotally this January uh with weather being so warm international travel being down the the numbers out of Pitkin in January were off

quite a bit don't you

uh ours were uh I would say ours are hard to compare because we had some non-compliant U taxpayers catch up. We had a few also miss. So, it seemed like it was about flat. I mean, it wasn't like wheels were coming off the car, but it wasn't I don't it's it's not a um seems like a sticky number, but nothing growing. So, I think I think my just cautionary tale because that is our principal source of income. So, we're talking about expanding services. We're talking about payroll is uh headcount is going to be going up. Fringe will be going up. Those costs are are a percentage of revenue. Um we're trying to keep between 45 to 50%, but if our revenue is staying flat and our payroll is creeping up, we're going to be breaching those numbers and it will be difficult to make the budget. So it'll be be my just again not borrowing trouble but just looking at looking ahead of what these what we're looking at

is the closure next it's April to November next year right is that April correct the closing day April 27 through the end of the year yeah right I mean the start

right so I just want to make that point uh on the sales tax since it does our big driver of income so looking at other license and permits your big U number here is building permits that year-over-year is actually down uh relative to 24. Um and um not way off but is still down. Um you'll see our grant number is in our intergovernmental services. Um that number is u a little higher this year versus last. Uh we have in here our um uh grants from Bola uh for the work being done over at 2e. We also have that OSTG money in here that we had last year along with basalt connect the reimbursement being uh in 2025 50% of the service. Um, and then let's see, big the big number here as far as a percentage increase year-over-year is miscellaneous income. We were the we being the town was the pay master of all of the liquor sales at the uh concerts. So, we had those receipts. The previous year, we had just laid that all off and the philanthropics. They were the pay master. So, we didn't all that money didn't cross our ledger. It did this year. So, that's explains the year-over-year uh increase. um working through the uh expenses here in the legislative area. This is where you will find events. This is where you'll find green team. Green team is our top expense of the general fund. Uh we also find in here that $600,000 that was paid for preserving the mobile home parks. Um in the administrative area, there's not a lot of room to move around here. These are essential services. This is outside. This is outsourced legal. uh outsource it. These are all our platforms that run

our accounting um STR compliance, our budgeting program uh that we use uh along with our CERSA insurance. uh service insurance is a killer because it's a a big number and a lot of that you really can't do without and a lot of the increases have been unfortunately driven by uh law enforcement claims that are incurring on the front range that's kind of spilling over to us these higher premiums. Um see here in just moving down give you some of the highlights here. uh facilities here. It was uh like $900,000. That was principally the last payment that we had on this coop, the certificate of participation for the purchase of the u umbrella property that we had. Um and the police is another area here. Um we, you know, we calmed down a lot of the savings that the police department was occurring. The police department experienced a lot of vacancy savings. And you look, I look at domains. Our revenue was flat. our our payroll actually as a town we experienced quite a bit of vacancy savings. One was the police department because we had some turnover. Uh secondly, Justin didn't start till April and we didn't backfill the assistant public works director position. We also had Ryan leaving and with him being gone and Gloria not starting until November, there was some savings there being picked up net of what what pittance I got for being the the town manager uh interim town manager. Um, so, uh, when I look at the whole expenses, you know, we did beat budget and that's really because we had vacancy savings and unspent capital. Um, it's a good report in that we bet we met revenue and our expenses were less than what we expected. So, we ended the year just page down just a little bit, James.

We paged uh we ended the year in the black uh by about $700,000 compared to what we thought we'd be, which is a negative $111,000. So that's that's really the the the Yeah. Ryan, did we have any I thought building fees were going to be like way off. Didn't we have a bunch of carryover from Did Did it slow down? I guess my it's a loaded question obviously uh across the street right came in but then did it slow down beyond that? Well, I think you're looking at the budget versus actual

Yeah. I was just wondering if we're like well we re restated the budget with that budget amendment we did in November. So we reredrreded up revenue to what we thought. So that doesn't reflect in Right. It doesn't show you doesn't show the original budget. It shows the restated budget. Oh yeah. So, I think that was one I know that was one of the adjustments we made was the budget uh for building permits. And we were originally thinking that there was going to be another Lake Modern building starting, but it's last year. Yeah. Right. It's that'll carry over to this year. So, that might Okay. So, a lot of those things are timing differences. They're hard to predict. This is really kind of where the cash landed. Oh, no. Of course, I just was double checking.

Right. And then let's go over here to the if we could James on the same slide to go over that little box up there in the corner here. This is just showing our cash position and where it's actually located. So we have money in Colorado Trust. Uh we have money in Ellers, which is our longerdated uh investments. And then we have money over at Alpine. So we started the year with just just under 30 million in uh cash and cash equivalents. And we ended we ended the year with just slightly under 30 million. A net increase of $148,000 which what we ended up for the year which all things considered with all the things they had moving around it's actually not a bad bad story. So um let's go to next slide. So I'm that's the general fund. All right. So let's go to the next slide here. This is the restricted fund. This is the quicker to go through because this is a easier story. There's, as you know, 32 different restricted funds. Three of them are tax related. That's being the post revenue. That's the one penny I talked about of of sales tax coming to the town. There's also lodging tax and tobacco tax. And then the green is the RITAS. There's eight RIAS. They had the other 32 funds. There's eight RITAS. And that was what the revenue that was generated from those RITA. Just a little slightly under 30%. So the 30 and the 60 that's 93% of our revenues generated there and then we have some other miscellaneous funds that make up the difference. So let's go to the actual numbers and see where we ended up. Now, um the 3 million here is a good number to remember here along with the lodging because I'm going to illustrate because um here in a little bit how those numbers uh actually create some allocations of money moving from the restricted fund to the general fund. Um

so all of these various components here are really are our principally our uh readers. We also had the uh park dedication fee. Sort of like a uh tap fee. You come into town, you gota pay a tap fee for the get into the water service. It's a tap fee for the parks. You know, all of the investments that the town has made for parks throughout the years. And coming into town, you're building something. You're going to be paying a park fee. That 500,000 or so was generated from the Midland. There'll be a similar fee uh when the Jagwin comes online that they'll pay a similar type fee for park service or park uh it's like ticket to entry if you will. Um I want to these are other expenses here. U what's remarkable here I want to go over here is the post. Uh there's been a considerable amount of discussion about post and really what that number represents. Um so I have detail about what that is. So, let's go down one slide here, James. Or go to one more. Here we go. You make that a little bigger if you could. So, of that $2.4 million, this is right out of the general ledger. First line is the COP, that's a certificate of participation for Arbony Park. We had borrowed money to renovate the pool um like five years ago. So that was the that's the load we have in debt service to pay off that loan. Uh we have a rem remaining payment is occurring in 2026. So that's part of the post budget. You'll see here 2075 600 and 700. These two numbers combined in your deck here there's uh it adds up to like a million400,000. Those were all the post projects that we have. I know there's been a lot of chat about you know because just really what all is that number there's like I don't know seems like there's like 20

different projects we have in there so we'll go to the detail of that uh here in a second but what I also want to illustrate here is that that post allocation that's the 20% of the post revenue is an expense to the post department and that $600,000 is an expense to the restricted fund that actually serves as an offset to the general fund in maintaining our public gardens and and our parks department. In addition, this u down here parks out. This is department 77 is lodging. I don't know why it was called that, but I'm just went with legacy um descriptions of departments, but this is lodging. See the money page of the chamber marketing for events. This 120,000 also offsets the cost of the parks. So if you add the 120 and the 606, go down to one more slide here, James, go to the next slide. One more the order here. This is the general ledger for the parks department called public gardens. That's the $700,000. So when you're you're going to see here in a minute Good Earth coming in with a resolution for maintaining our public arts, it's like $400,000. That's that's bigger. That's in this number here. Without this allocation from the restricted fund, uh without it, our parks department would run more like $850,000. So we're we're offsetting the general fund's expense by these allocations. So, we're just moving money from the right pocket to left pocket restricted fund to the general fund. So, I just wanted to be able to to illustrate that. Go. So, any questions are on that?

So, the 600 that goes to public works now, is that funding the $400,000 Goodear contract? Yes, it's in that 727, Rick, because we also have that 600. We also have the lodging. the um quarter of the lodging tax. 125 125. Yeah. Exactly. That's exactly right. Okay. All right. So,

real quick, if I if you would backtrack into some of those other funds, I guess I would just wonder where I think it's been on Rick's radar and I've been thinking about it too is just in this I mean there's so much money here, but where are the funds that would be able to be either voted on or where is our extra money? I'm gonna get to that. It's in the deck. It's in the deck. Never mind. I will get to that. I'll show you. I have it. I have it. So, let's go back up one one page here just for a minute. U This is right here. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm sorry.

You don't You don't have to change it. No, no, no, no, no. He's He's He got uh computer doing its own thing. The million control.

I just wanted to show this because this is this is important here because when we're putting this budget together, these are all the projects and this is this is like uh more more detail than you guys normally see. We just brush over you have 2.4 million in post and we just kind of move on. These are all the projects that that 2.4 are the budgets 2.4 but actually what was spent was a million for funded. We had the pool, we had some signs, we had fire mitigation, we had all of these various projects. Everything's tagged to a project code. And all of those numbers are reviewed quarterly and we'll be doing it under the direction of of Katherine here going forward. We'll meet quarterly and we'll say what our budget was, what our actuals were, what the balance is, and kind of what the priority is, and who's the owner. Now just page down just a another couple u slices here. This you know this came up in the conversation with greenlighting the basalt connect $35,000. Okay. There's things that occur throughout the year that don't get budgeted. And if you remember right there was things in the parking lot that we didn't budget like his cliff hillside was something you're going to see tonight that wasn't budgeted. Okay. But we're going to that's going to be presented tonight as something to be green lit. So, we're going to take money out of the parking lot. How are we going to pay for it? Which we'll get to. But then the other the other thing I want to just say for um clarity here, and this is more for Jeff's benefit, is are we doing a budget amendment every time we ring go over something that wasn't a line item in the budget or are we going to do a budget amendment for when we ring the bell? And I think if we have a budget of in this case of $2.1 million, this is 2025 numbers. If we're not spending that 2.1 million, do you need to do a budget amendment even though one of the line items was over? I would pose it that you

don't uh just like we didn't necessarily need to do a budget amendment for the mobile home parks because in hindsight we had enough money to cover it, but we did anyway. Okay. So um if there's money that's budgeted and appropriated right for the that purpose you know that available to be for that expenditure yeah then then it is fine. I think the question that came up on the last budget cycle was there were maybe fund balances that were carried over but not appropriated. Right. So that was the issue.

Right. Okay. Well, we're going to go we're not going to like do a budget amendment every time we have something that's on budget. If if we're eclipsing the budget a number, we will do a budget amendment. If you're doing a public works project, you cannot enter a contract that would exceed your appropriated money. Right. Okay. I believe that's that's that's what we'll be following. Okay. Did you say, if I heard correctly, too, you do a you have to add that project there if it wasn't there already, you would have to do a supplemental appropriation to appropriate the money. so it could be spent on that public works project before you enter the contract to spend it.

Okay. I think that's what we'll be doing. Okay. All right. So, let's finish this off here. Um let's go um um down. I think it's a little bit more here. Oh, wait. Do Wait, hold on. Um let's finish the other funds and then I'll go to the restricted. You want to do the balances of the restricted fund now that we're on it or what do you think? Don't threaten me with a good time doc. You just do you. Let's show them the balances. I think it's Let's go to the Let's go Let's go to the end here, James. Go to the end. Let's do it. Because this this is brought up.

All right. Here we go. All right. So, these are these are unudedited numbers uh where I believe the fund balances will drop out at 12:31. when we get the audit done. So, the general fund will have 13.3 million in it. The restricted fund will have 10.6. There'll still be um 5 million or so of cash in the capital construction fund, which was the bond proceeds. The water fund, that's not representative of cash. Um because it's an enterprise fund, it includes property and equipment. There's about a million eight in the water fund. So just a little caveat there is don't conflate cash with fund balances with respect to the enterprise fund. Conservation trust fund is at 207 and then these other ones are just minor amounts. So basically um the fund balances are going to be coming in around 357. Cash is around 30. The difference is really the property and equipment and the water fund. So you go down to the next page. Um here you So of that 13 million in the general fund, we have some that's we have a a category says unspendable of 66,000. We have a Taber reserve we're required to maintain. We also have a policy for keeping our reserves at basically 40% of our uh operating expenditures over the last three years. So that's some bargain money. I I have to I'll have to update that number and I'll likely update this number. Um but then um then we have like 7 and a half million of unappropriated money. This is uh I'm covetous of this number because we've been using this number as a marker as a way of funding the police public workstation. Okay. So yeah may may look like we got a lot of

money but that police public work station isn't it's going to be more than 7.4 $4 million. Um, and then of the restricted fund, um, we have 950 of unspent tobacco money. We've got small amount of lodging tax money has been spent. This is our post budget, $3 million. So, as we pull money out of the parking lot, we'll be seeing, look at the $3 million. So, as long as we don't eclipse that three million in reserves, we're okay. Uh, and then we have readas. If you add up all the readas, we have $4.5 million of unspent money. This is the parks money. And then these other miscellaneous uh funds will round it out to the total uh balance of the restricted funds of I think it's about $10.6 million. So, does that help understand where the cash is? Ryan, you had that question, right?

Yeah. All right. Doug, I had a question. So, so on all the restricted funds, this column is showing this is just the fund balance. Fund balance. It's not showing what's been what amount of that was budgeted and appropriate appropriated for 2026 expenditures. Correct. Okay. Correct.

Yep. Yep. that that re that's renewable at some level that those budget allocations for 2026 are are renewed. You know, they're one-time cliffs is one-time expense. Arity is one time. So, we're looking at public works police on the side of a long-term, you know, capital expense that's recovered over how many years, 25, I don't know. But that that to me is the significance of this,

you know, because we we can do projects every year to the tune of three or four million dollars and that refreshes itself in the case of 2022 versus now when it's flat. We still have a pretty good funding stream for and Rita, you know, real I'm hearing real estate numbers are come or sales prices are coming down. That's another reality. But I think that uh the impressive thing isn't the list of projects that we have. The impressive thing is the sustainability of the two 3% now and a potential half percent coming up in November that's pretty sustainable and

I don't I don't disagree with that. Uh but once the money is restricted, it's used for for those purposes. I think where my concern would be of the two pennies that's that's not restricted that's in the general fund that's that's funding the three domains being payroll operating and you know the sales sales tax I'm just talking about the 1% right sales tax right right it it is I mean and you could say that the sales tax is sticky for the most part so anyway all right I'm knocking on wood but I'm sorry

sales tax is sticky Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You want to go to the one you started with? Let's just do that. And you want to give a little preview here? So, I'm working with Doug on jazzing up his financial um Yeah, jazzing it up a little bit. Um so, we experimented with a a presentation um that was generated for us. Um and after reviewing its accuracy, we wanted to try it out. Um, but we're also looking at a modular module in uh clear gov that does this as well. So hopefully hopefully you'll find this jazzy. Was that good?

And we did it twice and we came up with totally different presentations using the same numbers. So I don't I don't know like from a it's supposed to be that way. It's supposed LLMs are random like by design. Well, it was it was random.

So let's just go through this real quick. So this is just the highlights. Um you'll see the operating revenue. This is general fund revenue is 12.5 12.9. This missed by a little bit. Uh this this number is not exactly right. Um but there was a surplus in the general fund. This 4 million is what the capital construction fund. We did not go over that particular fund, but that's essentially the rounding out the uh finishing off Midland and then also the affordable housing projects we have going infrastructure future. Exactly. To be jazzy. Exactly.

Well, you know me long enough to know I'm not jazzy. So, and then this is uh just all the various funds we have. general restricted water bond capital um and then the surpluses and then the deficit. Um this capital construction fund should be a deficit. We should ultimately spend out all that money. So it should ultimately be zero. Um the next one and then this is we did the pie chart for the general fund. This is just block chart. This is sales tax property. Um and then all our other revenues that were displayed uh previously. Um, and then of all these pillars of of of work. I don't know why it did this as a dollar amount, the other ones didn't. And why this was executed 94 with the other ones, but but I think there's a good pillar here is that these are your principal drivers of services. We'd already talked about the administr administration being a little bit higher than probably it is historically because of the 600,000 going to the mobile home park. And then um legislative is the green team, the events, the coop and the tab refunds. Um and that's again pillars of of expenses. Um just moving along here to the next. So this is pretty just a pretty good little summary of the restricted funds. You've got your taxes to Rick's point. They're pretty sticky. Uh 30% aras that's all transactionbased. uh affordable housing is our rent for our owned units. And then we have some building permits and some other impact fees in this number. Um next up, this is just our revenue versus our expense surplus of 2.3. The the taxes and the readers are now this is a pie chart versus the other one that this same pie chart we had with the uh

other presentation we just did. And then finishing up the next slide,

this is our water fund. Water fund is actually pretty good shape. Um revenue. We have pretty little profit this year. We we've got two big capital projects happening. One is the meter replacement that Justin's working on and we also have a water line uh project and some of the outy years to address. I don't think capital on those both those projects are going to be more than the cash we have to fund those. So, we'll likely be borrowing money. We're going to do both. We're going to have to borrow money. And I submit that we would be uh borrowing money for the meters versus the water line. That' be easier thing to borrow money for. And also just makes sense the the water meters in people's homes. We got thousand accounts. Uh we got So anyway, that's that's coming. Um, all right. Next slide up. This is just our pyramid of cash. 30 million. This is our liquid stuff. We got some stuff that's all of this is liquid. It really comes down to it. But there's our short shorter term maturities. And then these are longerdated. This is our laddered approach, four-year ladder reaching for yield um for a big chunk of our revenue, our interest uh revenue. And then next up is just bottom line. We revenues exceeded expectations. We cleared all our goals. We've had disciplined operating spending. We had good uh savings on um payroll vacancy savings and unspent uh capital dollars. And we also did uh great I think a good great job on spending our uh capital money on building out spills and some of the other things that we've been working on. And is that the last slide? It's the last slide.

That's the last slide. So anyway, there you go. That's all I got. Huh? So that was a jazzy deck. That was jazzy. You like it? Some like slide transitions like emojis explosions, right? What's that? Let the slide build to the next one. We get music next time. We I maybe Eddie Money rabbit rabbit money. And so hopefully this helped tea you up for these next agenda items to talk through those, right? Because some of these are applicable here. So

I I would like to thank Doug and team for the the amazing detail that we are in now from the last eight years to now. and Christy before Doug. I mean, we are in the most amazing spot as a town with our financials that some people might never know if they don't go back and look at at where we were eight years ago to now. It's it's amazing. It's, you know, not to beat a drum, but it's so cool to see where the town is and and what our staff is doing. team have done. So yeah, thank you all.

Within five points of the budget, you know, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Thank you for all the work, Jenny, and everybody does for that. Um, all right. We'll move on to council actions. Item 7A is an interview and appointment of prospective members member to parks, open space, and trails. Interview and appointment of prospective member Charlie Eckert to post. And uh you're standing in for Carlton, Catherine.

Yeah. And I was hoping Charlie would be here, but um he's he's not. So um anyway, I'll introduce him any way and you guys can make a decision. Um but tonight I was going to bring forward to you an application from Charlie Eckert to join the town's post committee. Um Charlie is a Basalt resident who also serves as the chair of Basalt's green team. So he's been an active member um of our citizen boards for a while now. Um he's been involved in the creation and maintenance of many of our local trails and parks for decades. He serves on the board of Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers as well as a Roaring Fork um mountain bike association. Um and tonight I'm bringing for your consideration um a three-year post appointment for him. Right now we have two post positions that are open. Um so he would be filling one of those. Um, and I I'm sorry I can't answer any questions you might have for him this evening, but happy to answer any others you might have.

May I move the town council appoint Charlie Ecker to the post committee for a three-year term to end March 24th, 2029. All right, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you. Thanks, Catherine. Yep. Okay. Next up, we have item 7B, a public hearing and introduction meeting 555 Basalt Avenue development application for special review PUD amendments and associated development review actions for 54 commercial storage units and 47 residential units. And uh James, you're up for this one. And

if you guys like to come up to the front table, please. Thank you, mayor. Uh we have the applicants here this evening as well. Uh we've got Justin Fes representing the development uh team uh and Mara Blahett who is the owner of the Meyer Steel property. Um, as you noted, this is an introduction meeting and a public hearing on a development application submitted by MRE LLC uh for a special review, PUD amendments, site plan review, and associated development actions to construct 54 uh commercial storage spaces in 47 uh multifamily residential units at 555 Basalt Avenue uh which is the Myers & Company steel uh property in Southside. Uh the process for review includes land use requests that require review by the Basalt Affordable Community Housing Commission uh Bach uh the Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council uh with public hearings at both the PNZ and town council levels. Uh it also requires subsequent uh subdivision review uh by town council to condominiumize portions of the project uh that are proposed. Um staff has also identified that the requested development uh would require approval of master plan amendments uh to amend the future land use map for the project uh as well as to amend the typology designations uh for the property. And as such, a master plan amendment is being evaluated concurrently uh with the other land use

actions uh that are requested. Uh and a review of the master plan amendment will be by PNZ. Uh and they've made a recommendation to the town council. Uh so the council will have a resolution for consideration at a future meeting. Um so this evening uh as I identified uh staff recommends treating this meeting as an introduction to the proposal, an introduction to the discussion items that are related to the proposal uh and also a public hearing uh so you can understand kind of what the public comments are associated with the application. Uh and then ultimately staff would suggest uh providing some initial uh discussion and then continuing the public hearing to a future meeting. Uh so that said to kind of start an introduction to the project uh the site subject to the application uh is the Myers & Company steel project uh property at 555 Basalt Avenue. It's a 4 point acre uh property in Southside. Uh it's in the Basalt business center south PUB and this is the property boundaries here uh that you have the green around. Uh the site uh is adjacent to the basalt park and ride on the north side. This is the basalt park and ride. Uh this is Cody Lane on the south on the north side of the project and then it's bound by FU Lane on the south side and the southside 4 uh development which is located right here. Um it's within the urban growth boundary and it's zoned uh industrial PUD and it's partially in the southside flood plane. Uh you can see

the site here. This map shows uh the the flood plane uh as it goes through the site. Um the proposal is to remove all the existing buildings and construct uh 54 uh commercial storage uh areas uh on the south half of the project uh which is this area here. And then on the north portion of the project, the applicant has proposed uh 47 residential units in three buildings uh of multifamily development. Uh the access is proposed uh for the residential from Cody Lane uh via an expanded driveway uh from Cody Lane. And then access to the commercial storage as proposed on the south side from FU Lane uh which takes its access from Basalt Avenue. Um, as I identified, uh, the applicant is proposed for 47 residential units, uh, and 11 of which are proposed to be deed restricted, uh, for sale units. And, uh, we will let the applicant provide more detail as part of their comments, but that's just a brief introduction, uh, to what the proposal is. um staff and the planning and zoning commission identified a series of discussion items uh at the PNZ review level and uh staff has included those in the front page of your staff memo. Uh and there's more detail on these discussion items in the P&Z memos uh that are attached to your packet materials. Uh but staff would like to briefly go over those uh discussion

items uh to give council a a brief introduction to uh what what the uh consideration topics are. Um the first is consistency of uh land use with the master plan. Uh the site is in close proximity uh to the basalt park and ride as it's adjacent to it. uh and it has an opportunity to provide housing uh in close proximity to transit uh which satisfies uh could satisfy a series of goals and objectives uh from the master plan as was outlined in the PNZ memos. Um, however, uh, as I noted, it was identified that the property would, uh, require an amendment to the, uh, current, uh, future land use designations for the property in the master plan. Uh, the property is located, uh, in this area right here. Uh it's currently identified as existing land use on the future land use map uh because it wasn't envisioned uh to be redeveloped uh for the uh life of the master plan uh when it was adopted. Um, additionally, uh, the, uh, typology in which the property is located in in the master plan is work mixed use. And the work mixeduse typology envisions that uh, commercial and residential are integrated on a site uh, for development. And the applicant has proposed uh to separate those uh with the commercial being on the southern portion and the residential being fully on the uh northern portion of the site. Um so there would be a need to adjust the typology as well to make this uh

multifamily residential on the north side. Uh so as I noted, staff will bring back a resolution for consideration uh at a future meeting on the master plan amendments. Um the planning and zoning commission did review the master plan amendments that were associated uh with the project. Uh they were supportive of the master plan amendments. Uh but they would like to see a greater percentage of affordable housing uh in the project uh for their recommendations. Um other discussion items included compatibility of the use. Um the proposed uses of commercial storage uh and residential uh are allowed uses in the industrial zone district uh with the residential being a special review use. Um in looking at the um storage use, staff identified and PNZ agreed uh generally that the storage uh spaces would need to remain really as storage spaces and couldn't kind of morph into principal business locations um because the the traffic uh study uh identifies those spaces as storage and um they have a a lower traffic generation rate uh than if they were operating actual businesses out of there. So um that was a significant discussion item at the PNZ level. Other topics uh for consideration included the level of affordable housing uh as well as the mix of units. Uh Bach reviewed the original proposal and recommended incorporating uh some larger affordable housing units in the project

and the applicant responded by combining a studio and a one-bedroom affordable housing unit uh to make a two-bedroom affordable housing unit. Uh this reduced the number of units to 47 total in the project. Uh and then also the number of affordable housing units to 11. Uh so the revised mix of affordable housing includes one studio, nine onebedrooms and one two-bedroom unit. Um they also as part of the Bach review of the project adjusted the proposal so that the units are proposed as a for sale product. Uh and overall this yields 23% of the units uh being uh affordable housing indeed restricted and 25% of the overall residential square footage uh being deed restricted. Um of note the current town affordable housing requirements are that 20% of the residential units uh be deed restricted and 25% of the residential square footage be deed restricted. Um so in reviewing the proposal, Bach reviewed the revised program and were supportive of the change uh and were supportive of the level of affordable housing. Uh they cited that the for sale product uh was important to have uh since the town's inventory of for sale affordable housing is low and that's a gap uh in the town's inventory. Um and but as I noted uh the PNZ expressed a desire to see a greater level of affordable housing in the project as part of their recommendations. Um other topics

uh for introduction include the traffic. Uh the applicants provided a traffic study uh that is included in your packet materials. Um staff had a third-party uh traffic uh engineer review the traffic report. Um we had uh Jim Charlier of Charlier and Associates review the traffic study. Um we have used Charlier in the past on uh multiple development projects uh to review traffic studies. Um Jim Charlier expressed uh some concerns about the original traffic study uh only providing for one traffic count uh that was used to identify the amount of traffic uh that is generated by the existing Meyers development and uh the applicant as part of the PNZ's review uh responded to um Charlie's concern concerns uh about the one traffic count uh by providing an additional traffic count that was done uh during the PNZ's review. And so that traffic count showed a higher existing traffic u generation by the existing uh Meyers steel operations on the site than the original. Um so the overall conclusion of the traffic report uh is that the proposed traffic would not exceed uh the existing traffic that is being generated by the Myers Steel uh operations that currently are exist. Um the applicant's traffic engineer is on the Zoom call this evening and they can provide additional uh comments on that and detail as part of the applicant's uh presentation.

Additionally, uh staff can have uh Jim Charlier uh attend a future meeting to answer questions that the council has on his third party review. Um and ultimately PNZ uh recommended uh that the applicant be required to contribute uh to uh their fair share of the roundabout uh expenses at the uh Cody Lane Basalt Avenue roundabout project that has been required uh for contribution from other development projects uh in Southside. Uh, as a reminder, the Southside uh East Cody Lane uh roundabout was identified as an improvement in the Southside traffic study uh that would increase capacity uh by allowing for laneage changes and uh uh being able to remove the split phase uh from the traffic signal at Basalt Avenue and Highway 82. Um so that's expected to be a requirement of the ordinance uh that the council would get at a future meeting. Uh additional topics include uh FU Lane. This was a significant disc discussion topic at the PNZ. uh emergency services. Uh the police department and the town TRC have been interested in having the applicant uh look at widening uh the uh FU lane. FU Lane is on the south side of the project and uh narrows down uh to a pretty narrow two-way uh access uh that goes uh in and out of the southside subdivision.

Um, and there were many public comments at the PNZ level about uh different alternatives that should be looked at uh on FU Lane. They included a widen two-way. They included uh having a one-way uh access shift and then potentially doing a path uh so that emergency services could use that path uh if they needed to. Uh and then there was also another idea that was floated about having kind of a split two-way uh and converting the Somerset trail uh that goes adjacent to the current daycare uh into a oneway out and then including the existing access as a oneway in. Um, so given that we had a series of options and we had uh considerable uh discussion, uh staff in the PNZ determined that we thought it was appropriate uh to have a third party traffic engineer evaluate it and uh provide recommendations uh on the topic. Uh so we have uh uh hired uh Jim Charlier to take a look at that and make a recommendation uh at a future meeting uh in terms of what that FU lane um kind of cross-section should be ultimately as part of the project. Uh other topics that came up uh during the review included um the um aesthetics of the buildings and the elevations. Uh the applicant uh revised the elevation drawings several times during the PNZ's review uh at the direction of the PNZ uh to make them more visually appealing and

interesting. Um the applicants can speak further to their improvements and they've got some additional uh drawings to show the council. Ultimately the PNZ was accepting of the revised uh elevation scenario. Um additional topics uh included the pedestrian access to the project. Um, this project is adjacent to the BRT site uh in the Basalt Park and Ride. This is the Basalt Park and Ride. Uh, this is the access road uh that currently exists from Cody Lane to the uh Meyers property. Um, the applicant originally proposed to provide a sidewalk across uh the uh park and ride uh to get to Cody Lane. uh RAFTA was not accepting of that scenario and instead uh recommended doing a sidewalk adjacent to the uh current access road. Uh so the applicants amended their plan to include a sidewalk adjacent to the access road uh that would connect up uh with the current crosswalk uh that goes across uh Cody Lane uh to the BRT and the uh other older Basalt parking drive. Um so that is included in the plan and the proposal. Other considerations include the southside flood plane. Uh as I noted, this uh site is partially in the southside flood plane. Uh the applicants worked with the town's hydraologist uh who is Robert Crrael of Matrix uh design

uh to come up with a site plan uh that would work uh for the flood plane uh in that it includes uh tuck under parking in the residential buildings uh to allow for uh flood flows in a flooding event uh to continue through the site and not increase the base flood elevation. Uh, additionally, the other requirement related to the flood plane is that the first finished floors of the building be at least 2 feet above the base flood elevation. And because the uh parking is tuck under uh the first finished floors of the residential or significantly uh above the flood plane. So ultimately, Robert Crrael uh indicated that the proposed uh site plan would work from a flood plane standpoint. Uh other topics also included green building and wildfire. Um staff uh anticipates that there would be conditions uh requiring that the applicants would need to meet the SBR requirements uh as well as the wild wildfire mitigation requirements that are in effect at the time of a building permit. Uh this is important because uh we're likely going to see changes to the wildfire mitigation requirements uh shortly. Uh so we want to capture those uh by requiring it uh be applicable to the uh requirements at the time of building permit instead of development review. Uh there were a couple other discussion items that included short-term rental. Um the PNZ approved a condition that would require that there not be any short-term rental in the residential. Um the applicant has actually requested uh that there be minimal short-term rental allowed in the

market rate units. Uh they've proposed to limit the short-term rental uh to be permitted to uh 60 days per year in each unit. Uh which lines up with the regulatory fee exemption for short-term rentals. um that can be exempt uh if they uh rent it out on a short-term basis for less than 60 days in a year. Uh so that's up for consideration as part of the review. Uh and other topics include uh the phasing invested rights. Uh the applicants have requested the standard three years of vested rights uh that's in the town code. Uh however, the uh PNZ recommended uh a phasing requirement that the applicant be required to bring the deedrestricted affordable housing on uh proportionally to that of the market rate housing uh and that COS be obtained on the deed restricted housing uh before any COS be obtained on the storage units. Um the applicant uh was concerned about that and they have proposed uh a different approach. Uh they've proposed that the uh deed restricted housing come along proportionally to the market rate housing similar to the PNZ's requirements. Um but that the uh cos not be tied to the storage units and that the storage spaces uh if they don't receive a CO um if the deed restricted units don't receive a CO before the storage spaces uh that they would temporarily dedicate two of the storage spaces uh for use of the town until the uh rest of the deed restricted housing uh was completed in the project. Um, so

we can go over that in more detail uh if there are questions about it. But generally those are the main discussion items that came out of the PNZ and Bach review of the project. Um, as I noted, staff suggests treating this as an introduction meeting to the proposal and the public comments and the discussion items and then ultimately uh continuing the hearing uh to a future date uh and staff would uh solicit any initial comments as well that the council has on the project uh as part of the council comments. So with that, I will stop sharing my screen and ceue up the applicants presentation here. And uh once again, we have Justin uh and Marica representing the applicant group.

And I'll actually start. Can you hear me? I need to speak into this. Hi. Yeah, good evening. My name is Maria Blahett. My husband and I bought Meyers and Company as well as the property that it operates on 10 years ago almost to the day. I'm the CFO of the business, so bear with me. This is not usually my role. Um, and I appreciate the guidance from James and Michelle over the past two and a half years. And before I turn it over to Justin, I'll just briefly provide some background and explain our approach to the project, why I believe we believe it's a great fit for Basalt, and address some of the discussion items that James touched on. So Meyers has operated on the current site for I think around 30 years, several decades. And our workforce in the last few years has shifted a lot. Today of our 60 employees, we have five that live in the Roaring Fork Valley that includes Glenwood. So, we've decided a few years ago that we're going to relocate the operations somewhere along the I70 corridor to access a larger workforce, which then created the opportunity for us to redevelop this site. And in terms of how we approached the redevelopment, given what we know about the residential cris and workforce housing crisis firsthand, we thought that a residential use should be part of a redevelopment and we're also right next to the raft bus stop. Um, but at the same time, we wanted to reduce overall traffic compared to what we're currently

generating. And this is the piece where the garage storage component comes in. It's it's also called man cave storage. It's a very different from all the storage you've seen. It doesn't exist in the valley yet. I'll let Justin probably talk about a little bit more, but this is where this garage storage component comes in because it allows us to carry the project economically, support the housing, and reduce overall traffic. to and James has touched already on some of the points, but to achieve the current result, we've worked closely with town staff. We've made several adjustments in response to the town staff's feedback. We've included the We've added the exterior storage to the affordable units. We've we've done another traffic count. We've secured the C dot access permit for Cody Lane. And we've re refined the design quite a bit. And as proposed, the project currently delivers, and James has touched on most of it, 47 new housing units right next to a rafter bus stop, uh, with 11 for sale deed restricted affordable housing units. Right now, there's only 36 total affordable housing units for sale in Basalt, and we would add 11 to that count. Uh, you've you've touched on the other ratio, so I'm not going to go over them again. um in terms of affordable housing that we're slightly exceeding the requirements and I'll also get back to the affordable housing to the housing piece a little bit later. Um then it provides a net reduction in traffic because we actually do generate a lot of traffic on our current site along with the noise and dust that we have and it creates this high-end unique storage product

that does not exist as such. There's a unit here or a unit there between Aspen and Glenwood and there's actually a lot of demand for it. And it's yeah, it's a different product from the mini storage that you see. And we'll show some images of what it typically looks like and and what it's being used for a little bit later. And last but not least, at least we think is a big aesthetic improvement on the site compared to what's there. Um and as I mentioned at the beginning, I want to also touch just briefly on some of the discussion items that uh James mentioned. Um I uh first want to talk about the housing and deed restricted piece of the development is I think it's worth pointing out how we approach the whole housing piece all together because financially the project is carried by the garage condo component. It carries the whole housing piece. So it would have been most beneficial economically for us to just maximize the commercial component but instead we actually backed with our first traffic study into maximizing the residential piece in it. So effectively, we've prioritized the the residential units within traffic limits to increase the community benefit from the get-go in our approach. However, I think it's also I need to mention that additional deed restriction requirements would put significant pressure on the project to reduce the current level of housing component that we've been solving for. Um then secondly that I was going to

touch talk about the phasing part but I think you've really covered what what we've what we're supportive of and maybe we can talk about it in more detail later. And then the last point I want to talk about is just briefly fuel lane. I think it's important to know that our application did not request any change to fuel lane. We haven't from our point of view we're not touching fuel lane so to speak and while it seems like the discussions between emergency services and residents are really important and it's an important topic we feel like it is somewhat separate from our application since we're not asking anything and we just like it to be considered that for what it's worth our application reduces traffic on fuel lane if nothing else changes We're improving fuel the fuel lane situation significantly with this proposed development

and also uh we did a tree inventory of the whole site and it did come up that the trees along the lane is probably the most mature healthy landscaping that is in that area. And so in closing, I believe that this represents a thoughtful redevelopment of a long-standing industrial site. It provides a strong net benefit to be thought through community housing, reduced traffic, and visual improvement of an existing site. And with that, I'll turn it over to Justin.

All right. Uh good evening everybody. Justin Freeze with the architecture design team. Uh we also have uh Anthony Alfini from Roaring Fork Engineers in Carbondale on the line. And we have uh Curtis Row with Kimley Horn. Uh he is our traffic engineer and he also is the traffic engineer that did the full southside study. Uh which is why we engaged him for uh you know this site specifically. Uh so he's very knowledgeable on the site uh in that area and uh how it relates to traffic. Um, so, uh, K James, can I have a jump to the the next slide real quick?

All right. So, I just want to jump through a couple of our, uh, site plan exhibits and give you a little bit more detail on, uh, on these items. Hopefully, they provide a little bit of clarity. Uh, so we've got the uh, the overall aerials of the the southside. Uh, we've got the Meer site kind of dead in the middle with the more light uh, commercial uses to the northeast. uh the raft a lot due north and then the housing uh to the south. Uh we also have Basalt mini storage over there on the west side of the development. Um so you know as we looked at this we were in the Basalt business center south uh which allows pretty extensive industrial use currently. Uh, and the 2020 master plan kind of anticipated this as a mixeduse commercial, but mixeduse commercial did also note including very light industrial uses, light assembly, repair shops, similar to some of the uses uh in that area right now, but uh a few others that aren't really considered in that uh currently. And so, you know, working with planning, I think we've been at this for about 18 months or so. uh June of 2024. Uh we were trying to design a site plan that was mixed use uh that provided new residential but also still protected some industrial space in the town as well because that you know as as it goes away it typically doesn't come back. Uh that's something we had discussions with uh during planning and zoning uh that there are trade contractors. There are people that just need small warehouse space for shipping granola bars or t-shirts or things like that that they can't use their houses for uh once their business expands. And uh this type of product um this the garage condo flex warehouse pro uh product type uh helps with that. Um, as Micah mentioned, we backed into this design of how much is the right amount of, you know, storage warehouse

space versus how much is the right amount of, uh, residential space. And a lot of that was due to traffic study, uh, and traffic counts. Um, you know, looking at potential other commercial uses, uh, would just increase traffic and traffic is priority number one in the southside. uh as we've worked our way through this process. The other uh thing with the as we've laid out the site plan is you've got kind of more commercial heavy uses to the north, less uh less intense residential to the south, which led us to this uh organization with low-rise residential three-story buildings that kind of match with the 525 uh building just to the west of the uh the project. uh and put residential right at the front door of the raft to park and ride uh while putting the self- storage warehouse space. That's lower intensity um with the uses we've kind of prohibited uh on the south and that also is one of the the reasons we're mentioning there's an improvement to fuel lane because traffic intensity would go down. Currently, all of the Meyers, you know, trucks, deliveries, everything goes in and out of that few lane uh access. I'll jump to the next site plan. All right. So, this is the the site plan we came up with with three buildings uh three stories each. We're limited to 35 ft in height uh currently by the Basalt Business Center South. uh and we were looking to maintain that but with the constraints of the flood plane that required lifting the buildings up uh and that allowed for two stories of residential uh use and then circulation for the storage warehouses in and out of the few lane access on the southwest. Uh there is a lane that drives all the way through the site but it would be uh

separated by a gate. fire department would have access to circulate through, but it would keep the residential separate from the storage area. Uh, and that goes back to kind of that mixeduse commercial um zoning anticipation on the on the comprehensive plan that with allowing some industrial uses, we didn't feel it made sense to stack residential on top of that use. And so separating it from south to north on the site plan uh made some more sense versus putting it on top uh which which led to this overall design. I jump to the next page. Uh so this is the current use chart that's allowable industrial uses uh by the basalt business center. Uh all of the items in red we have further we have proposed further restricting. Um so those were uses such as gas stations, oiling oil and uh fueling stations, boiling plants, uh industrial equipment sales, uh salvage yards, junkyards, um health clubs of more than 12,000 ft, 12,000 square feet. So we've essentially further reduced the intensity of the industrial to keep it at a light industrial type of use. Uh the yellow uh on there are similar just smaller uh we've got bulk dry cleaning and um nursery stock landscaping type production. Those were allowed uses. We've now made them special use review. Um everything else was more like blacksmith shops, glazing, plumbing, electrician, uh artists if they wanted studio space. Uh we've envisioned even caterers that want a place for trucks and and tables and chairs to store things there. We've seen uses such as that and these. So we wanted to to leave

those uses open. Um but overall trying to keep it in the light industrial use if someone was to use these these warehouse spaces for such. Jump to the next one. Uh so these are some images of other garage, condo, man cave, uh flex warehouse type spaces uh that are kind of developing across the mountain west. Currently I'm working in Jackson Hole, Big Sky, uh Gunnison, Basalt, and Aspen on similar type projects. Um we're seeing a high demand for them partially because of people's need for limited industrial space and not needing you know 10,000 square feet but needing a thousand square feet. Uh we've seen a demand of people with UTVs, RVs, boats that uh you know with with um parking restrictions with F restrictions uh to have those extra items. These have become uh a new option for for those items. And so wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the just different uses we've seen uh for them. And we've even seen, you know, personal vehicle collectors put a two-point lift in and kind of treat it as a an antique garage and they can uh work on work on their cars and keep them stowed and and safe. Uh so this is just a quick glance again at that flood plane map. So we had about four iterations on this uh because one of the big problems we had and we had more units uh previously uh was we had to protect uh the flow to make sure the historical flows were maintained but also that we weren't backing up and flooding on the properties to the east. Uh so the lifting up of the buildings out of the ground and the reconfiguration and reduction of storage units uh allowed us to to meet those requirements with the hydraulic with the hydraologist.

jump to the next one. Uh so just to zoom in on the site plan real quick um of what we ended up with on the layout. You can see the uh the drive through and there's very light lightly dashed in front of each one of the storage units. There's actually these are 50 foot wide drives. One, it helps with navigating if you have a trailer or a large RV. Um but also it allows for two parking spaces out in front of the unit. Uh that way if you are coming or going or if you're dropping off a trailer or swapping out a car, uh you're not um you're not impacting either the other users of the space or blocking any of that when when that's occurring. Um that is all on that slide. We'll jump to the next one. So now I wanted to just uh touch a little bit more on the connectivity from the the two sides. Uh so the other reason of pushing that residential up to the north of the site was uh the access that is already in place on uh to Cody Lane. So that is a C dot access shared with the Myers property. Uh it required an increase in the access count. It originally allowed for five trips daily. Uh after working with COT, we have improved that access permit to allow for the 47 units. Uh it's just the residential that goes in and out of uh this a this proposed access. Uh we wanted to give you a glance at some of the existing infrastructure and uh and site components in that area. There is a drainage ditch. Uh there's an existing mailbox uh utilities, a telecom box uh but we have worked with both RAFTA seed DOT uh and uh and town planning uh to come up with the solution. on the next slide. So, this is a zoom in of that proposed sidewalk. It wraps around down into the C dot access and then up uh to

that existing uh through our construction document phase, we would need to coordinate with the the drainage ditch, which I think is probably our our biggest concern. But in discussions with each of those stakeholders, uh we believe this is achievable uh and allows a walking path connection for residential to the raft uh park and ride. And then I'll jump to the other access side. So these are the existing uh photos of few lane currently. And on the Myers property, there is that 8ft tall wood fence. uh as a part of this proposed development that fence comes down and there's a 30-foot setback from the edge of the asphalt to uh the first wall of the building. Uh so in talking about how few lane improved, we think that's one of the biggest improvements is that sight lines will uh will open up uh in that area. I'll jump to the next slide. So this is a zoomin of that that portion. And so in the planning and zoning reviews and discussions and talks about uh how we best, you know, deal with fuel lane and the neighbors concerns and comments, you know, it's talked about widening. Uh one of the concerns about widening that is that there's already concerns that the high schoolers speed down it already, either going to school or coming from school and use it as a bypass around the Basalt Avenue roundabout. Uh we had some concern that widening that further, making it a two-lane could make it even more enticing to go a little faster and and skip the roundabout. Um I think there was multiple neighbors that mentioned making it a one-way uh and even possibly a one-way in uh and and so as Mara mentioned as part of this proposal, we think that might be a separate issue. Um the draft condition in the packets is mentioning

that there should be a financial security uh to participate in whatever the council decides as an improvement to that. Uh but at this time you know we're open to the suggestions and open to uh working with that but we think some of these improvements will help uh and and then that is a future uh discussion for the council. Uh one thing I want to point out in this diagram is the uh circles are the existing trees that we're proposing uh just the black and white circles are the existing trees we're proposing to save which are some of the tallest and oldest uh in the southside around the site. You know, widening the street would eliminate all of those trees. And uh if the street was to be widened or the easement be granted for possible future widening, we'd ask that um these setbacks be reduced to allow the site plan to be developed, you know, as we're proposing. Um widening the street and maintaining that setback would u would greatly change the overall site plan. So we'd like that to be considered. Um, also we've, you know, tried to align the, uh, access road into the site with Somerset Lane. Uh, right now it's a strange kind of six-pointed star of just roads coming together in that area and, uh, and we think this improves that area overall. Jump to the next one. Uh so these are the two uh draft conditions uh that were in the packets and uh just the the highle bullet points of them were that uh the applicant was to dedicate a 10- foot wide emergency vehicle access vehicular access adjacent to F lane. uh the town to approve reasonable adjustments to the

building or and landscape setbacks to allow the site to remain substantially as currently designed. The applicant to provide us financial security of $50,000 prior to the issuance of the first building permit to secure improvements as determined by town council and improvements shall be limited to access or safety improvements related to the project's traffic impacts solely. Um and then the other draft condition in there was the Cody lane access which was the increase to the access permit which has been um completed and then the the connection of the construction of the sidewalk and improvement of that existing access to connect to Cody Lane. Have you jump to the next plan? Um this was uh this exhibit is a request from planning and zoning. This is a preliminary construction management plan and how we think when construction gets started how the site will function. Uh the contractor we had uh kind of provide an initial analysis of this uh thought that the best use would be to have all construction traffic come in through Basalt Avenue and down F lane and then out through Cody Lane. uh that would prevent any, you know, largecale trucks, traffic, construction equipment backing up the first roundabout and getting them down a little bit further. Uh and then would also prevent outgoing traffic uh to clog up the Basalt Avenue roundabout. Um and while we're on the topic of traffic, so we had uh Curtis Row do the first traffic study and then we did an a secondary traffic study. uh both showed that based on current traffic in and out of the site uh the proposed storage units and residential units reduced traffic um and he can speak to that. Uh

both studies were strictly related to inflow and outflow of traffic on the site and not to the overall uh southside um traffic flows. Let me jump to the next slide. Um, so there was discussion during planning and zoning as towards the overall design of the building. Um, after uh a few design iterations, uh, we've kind of settled in on the next images, what I'll show you. Um, we we wanted to look at preserving some of the industrial nature of the site and the history of the building as a steel plant. Uh we also looked at over on the lefth hand side of the screen you'll see the uh 525 basult building the uh Halley Center that is currently under construction uh some examples of the recently completed mill residential buildings and then the mixeduse residential industrial building right on the Balt Avenue roundabout. Um we saw kind of a mix of masonry and metals. Uh and so in looking at that and then also looking at um some of the history of the site and looking at the mining history uh the metal cladding uh and then alpine detailing and we came up with the um the revised images you see here. Uh so we have kind of ornamented the buildings with metal um metal highlights uh but then used kind of that wood siding that we've seen in alpine detailing. Um and we have the lower scale self- storage warehouse buildings wrapped in a in a metal but patterned and varied and provided with windows which is somewhat rare of these storage buildings. uh they're provided with clear story windows and individual windows in each unit uh to provide just a better user experience when someone's in the space.

Uh so that is the access coming through uh the Cody lane access and approaching the residential buildings and showing that tuck under parking um and just the overall site with landscaping. I'll jump to the next. One of the items that did come up during uh planning and zoning is the PUD only allows for 35 ft in building height. The town code allows for 35 ft in building height to the top of the roof sheathing. So we um requested some uh adjustment to that. Uh one, it allows us to have a parapit wall that helps kind of have a bit higher screening to screen um rooftop equipment. Uh it also allowed us to do some of those tower elements you saw in those those previous images. Uh so then winding down to the affordable housing uh side of things. So we originally started at 48 units. Um and then after discussion with Bach and uh and talking with them about optionality of units um we reduced it down further. Uh we also added storage that you'll see um in the bottom lefthand corner. So all deed restricted units come with an additional ground level storage unit uh in the anticipation that they'd have ski equipment, bikes um uh and just provide some additional space to those affordable housing units which is um pretty much standard with afford other affordable units around. And so that was an inclusion uh that we made. Um, and the affordable housing units are spread out basically four per unit and three or four per building and then a third three in the other building. Uh, and so they're uh included in the overall development and included in each building uh for diversity. Uh, and they are I would say there's probably eight

different options or plans as far as square footage and and size. Uh, of the 11, one is a two-bedroom, one is a studio. The remaining nine are one-bedroom units. And so, I then wanted to talk about those couple of deed restrictions or draft conditions uh that Mara had touched on and James had touched on. Uh, the first one was the short-term rental um component. Uh so we we saw that there was already a town code that allowed up to 60 days and with the for sale option we thought that uh allowing the 60 days that is in line with town code uh that just gave kind of one more affordable option that if someone's buying it at market rate but wanted to use it to 60 days or less uh that would provide them with that option and so we've added that to the request. Um on the number of deed restricted units after discussion with Bach and planning and zoning commission and planning um it was determined since they're four sale units we were going to shoot for an average C of category three uh just making it a little bit more affordable. uh if they were going to be rental, we were looking at a lower category, but uh with them being for sale, uh they were supportive of it being a higher category just to kind of open up that applicant pool of who can uh qualify for the purchase of those units. And then the last um the last draft condition was the linkage of completing the storage and warehouse buildings to the residential buildings. uh as Mara had touched on uh a lot of this was a financial consideration but the secondary concern is uh you know in my all these other projects I'm working on that are storage warehouse buildings there typically is a unique developer that develops this type

of project versus someone that develops a residential project and they're not the same type of developer. Uh and so to to allow for the optionality of two developers to develop this project, um we wanted to decouple the residential from the storage. Uh and so we're uh we've added the condition in of uh essentially holding the sale of two units and deeding them to the town if the residential is lagging behind the completion of the storage units. Uh so that was kind of our option for uh for recourse and to to promote the construction of the residential. Um I believe that is all I have and that's a lot. So we're here to answer questions and we have got the engineer and the and the traffic engineer as well.

Well, thank you both. Um this is a public hearing so we will go ahead and do the public hearing at this point. Um the floor is open. And just a reminder, make sure you give us your name, address, sign in the back of the room, and also um 3 minutes is the time limit on the comments. And getting the clock out here. So, whoever would like to go first. Uh floor is open. I know who gets the clock after I'm gone. We have John. Oh, go ahead. Jeez. Thank you, Jeff. Miss Mayor, we love you. Great. Reset.

There you go. I got you, Miss Mayor. We got you. Hi. How are y'all? It's all good. Um, I sent you a lot of information to read and I just I wrote it down so I don't, you know, belabor the points. Um, I want to thank you for your time and I want to be clear that I'm not against the project. Almost 14 years ago, Mr. Myers actually gave me his approval to move forward in creating the hobby farm for our community children. He was awesome. 5 years later in 2017, I reached further to in creating the adjacent kinder cottage as a solution to unfortunate tenant issues the neighbors were having. You guys will remember

in turning um in turn that was allowed me to provide additional care for our community children there. Fast forward, the vast growth in Southside with only one funneled egress has created many of the safety concerns that I've already shared. My issue is safe drop access for the children with the children crossing over to and from the hobby farm. Now, it gives me great pause. Um, Foo Lane should be made a oneway only east with a proper crosswalk installed from the uh Somerset Trail or Somerset Lane, whatever you decide. um so that people know it's there. Um, alternatively, food lane east to Alexander Lane would also be the safest direct access for the children going to the Kinder Cottage. And lastly, I will never put any child in harm's way. Your final ordinance will dictate my next steps. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. See, we'll take uh the the person online 57 FIT75. Yeah, sure. John, uh if you'd like to This is John Fitzpatrick. If you'd like to make comments to the council, uh please go ahead. Uh John, we can't hear you. Are you still muted? We still can't hear you. Um, try now.

Like I hear something. Do you hear it now? I I didn't hear. Yeah, we got you now. Go ahead, John. We can hear you now. Go ahead.

Okay, super. That's great. Um, I'd like to get back to the uh traffic survey, gentlemen. I don't see where we did a how much traffic is currently going on Cody Lane into the Myers property and then how much is going to be proposed used on Cody Lane. I'm also concerned that the the added foot traffic that you're going to put on there just comes to the uh the original raft parking lot. Um all the way down the the the sidewalk currently now stops at the uh the upper end of the rafter parking lot. I think we need to have that road wider uh up to like a standard size and then you could have a sidewalk that people can access to walk all the way down and then access to walk into town. Um the other thing that is we keep kicking the can down the road for a long time developing and developing on one access. We really need to extend Lindam Avenue so we can access onto um Southside Drive. So there's two forms of access to our whole side. It just keeps growing and growing. We have the same intersection. I do not believe the proposed future roundabout is going to alleviate the problem at the traffic light. Uh I think uh we we've going to have two turn lanes going down valley, one turn lane going up valley and then one going straight over to the other

side towards downtown basalt with only one lane coming into our area. I I just think it's just it's an overused um intersection in you know we're this all goes back from when we all originally developed the bypass and how everything got uh uh set up and I think we really have to have a a second egress into our side safety wise traffic-wise um it really needs to be looked at before any more development goes on um that whole property and the whole area was was industrial wasn't planning on original adding now residential that's going to inree increase foot traffic bicycles and and vehicles onto a substandard road and I think that really needs to be looked at. Um that's my comment at this time. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments.

Anyone in the room, please. My name is Daryl Gene and I'm a owner of 206 Cody Lane, which is directly adjacent to the um Rafta VRT Park and Ride. Um uh concerning the address 555 Basalt Avenue, that's the address that Meyers used for their office. Is that correct? And that's what you're proposing for the entrance. Is that correct? It's it's not really a Q&A.

Okay. So, my question is um the uh the pro proposed access on Cody Lane um was not historic access for Meyers. Uh lot V uh when that was developed uh only got us access from Basalt Avenue. It wasn't until years later that Meyers said he couldn't turn his trucks around and and get him out the same way he came in. So, they got that other access on property that was actually dedicated to the town of Balt from Basalt Business Center East, a different subdivision. It was not intended to be access for V, nor was it ever historically used as access for V until recent years. Um so the uh the applicant proposes a two-way access at intersecting on Cody Lane and um uh the location of that intersecting access uh was actually built too low. the elevation of that um holds water and right where this is uh proposed to have the intersection of their access egress uh is uh under six inches of water uh during um snow melt and rain and in the winter it freezes over solid right in front of the mailbox. I provided photos for uh James Lynn. So, in closing, I um strongly recommend that the town council consider the following site off-site improvements, and that would be to reconstruct that access road intersection with Cody Lane, if they're going to use it at all. Um, and uh that would be uh erasing that grade, crowning it properly so it drains to the north. Right now, there's only a 6 inch cut in the sidewalk to let that water go. It doesn't drain. Uh and that's why it backs up. Uh we recommend that there's uh curb and gutter and sidewalk uh all along the whole west end of Cody Lane

like there is the rest of Cody Lane and um that there's a proper drain uh put in that space there where that 6 in improper drain is now. Uh we also propose to uh limit Cody lane access as a one-way direction only and uh even if it means uh um making few lane the other one one way or two way um but reduce Cody lane to a oneway and then um the other option and of course is to um reduce the density of the entire development to uh alleviate the impact on the whole of Southside. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Darl. Anyone else would like uh they'd like to come up and speak? The floor is open. Anyone online? All right, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and uh open it up for questions and comments from fellow counselors. James, can you bring up the first slide of their presentation of the applicant's presentation? Yeah. Okay, sure.

Just to start on this alone, this is such a disingenuous slide for presentation. Like you guys are presenting some development in the middle of a field. There's a high school back there. There's housing behind you. like what to to me this is just such a like I I don't know if you were just trying to emphasize what you were building but like I've sat here too long to see something like that and I and I'm sorry I'm on my way out. I just it's just so disingenuous and just this is not what Basalt is. This is not where you're building. There's there's sh like you don't even show Miss Mayors. You don't like the the high school's right there. The there's housing. There's other storage units. Like I don't know. I just your traffic study of one day. I I have so many different things to say. I just that alone is just the I'll let other people speak, but just come on. Show us what you're doing. Like this is storage for Aspen. I get you want to address the housing issue in Basalt, but this is a drop in the bucket. Well, maybe we can go through those some of the discussion points and kind of break it down. I know we're going to have another um um similar meeting here in three weeks, I think. Right.

Yes. So, we just start kind of because there's a lot to unpack and we start hammering through some of the discussion points like starting with the consistency with the master plan and uh you know, let's start there. Um well, it feels scheduled for 50 minutes. What's that? This was scheduled for 50 minutes. I know it. We an hour and a half later. Yeah, we'll we'll talk about that with the scheduling. Um we'll get through what we can today and then we'll move.

I'll random. Uh what I didn't hear was whether or not this property is uh part of the southside fee structure for the water tank and the roads and the infrastructure extensions out to the high school. It it is.

It is. Okay, good. Um emergency access to 10 ft. I don't think that's congruent with the fire departments. Normally it's 14. I'd like to see the tree species that you're talking about that are tall and all of that if they're spruce or cottonwoods or what they are if they're even worth saving. Um the flume the future land use map. I think to Ryan's point, we need to look at the entirety of Southside um in the context of what's going on out there. I think that the hobby garages are a non-starter for me. the drainage ditch referred to I think as sice tail water from the ranch that comes back into the river underneath the area over there and then I'm really interested in more discussion about the off-site improvements and I think that anything we look at that's isolated by property lines in that area has to take into consideration everything around it and then make adjustments to accommodate what's existing there. So that's those are my points for now. All right, let's we can do it that way, too. Who wants to go next?

Um, well, I mean, I feel like it's probably worthwhile because there's a a lot to unpack with the traffic study to maybe dive into that if if you will allow me, mayor, to kind of focus the conversation at least on on that thing. Clarifying question, when are we going to get the Charlie? I know it says like you'll keep us updated, but like what's the time frame on that? because I feel like we need more information from that. Well, in terms of the FU Lane uh analysis, uh Charier would likely be probably have an initial report maybe for the next meeting. Um and then maybe the full recommendations would be the following meeting. Okay.

So, two out. That helps my brain free what you're going to probably say.

Yeah. Well, and because we have the traffic study uh professional online, I figured we might as well take advantage of that, although I'm sure they'll come back online for the next meeting as well. Um I'm a bit with Ryan on this that I I don't I I feel like it needs to be a much more in-depth study. I I'm not I'm just not buying it. Um there's I simply do not believe that. Particularly when I looked at it and I was like, "Okay, storage units." You know, I have I I I have a unit at Basalt Mini Storage right there on the opposite side behind Bao. And I think about how often I go to that. Not very often. All right. Except that these aren't storage units as per your own presentation. And that made it even more alarming to me. They're not storage. They're like little mini office spaces. So then I think about, okay, well, if I bought one of these and I need an office space, I might come and go from there three and four times a day. So you have 54 units now with people coming and going because it's not storage. It's little rentable office or man caves or whatever you want to call it. Um, that to me is vastly different and increases the tra I'm not buying the fact that it's going to decreas the traffic at all. Um, and given that the commercial, and I understand the reasons for putting the residential on the north side and the commercial on the south side, but then you're putting the commercial and all of that associated traffic up against what is otherwise residential with with that end of Southside other than Hobby Farm, which is of course a commercial application, but it's a childare facility. And I think mayor has a point there with the safety of the children and the tightness and all of that. Um, so the traffic study for me is a big big sticking point. I mean, and then you look at just the traffic impacts overall. Even if you're redirecting the residential access to

Cody, you've got increased traffic on Cody Lane. I I I don't believe that Southside can absorb this amount of traffic and density. I have similar concerns on the traffic, particularly given the setup of these storage units as as seeming like office spaces or places that people could live. I I also look at something plumbed for a kitchenet and a bathroom and I am certain people will live there. Like this is such a tight housing market. I was talking to the head of the school family resource center. There are already 90 families in the Roaring Fork schools that live in storage units um because they can't afford housing. That's horrible to me. They're not plumbed for that. They don't have windows. They don't have heat. Like, we shouldn't have kids in those situations. And I see something like this and I'm like, I could see families moving into that, but that's not really the intention of these these storage units. So, I that's an additional concern. I agree with um with Angel and Hannah about the increased traffic because of the nature of the these storage facilities. You know, as you said, maybe somebody who's outgrown their garage, they're selling t-shirts or granola bars. Well, if a person's outgrown their garage selling t-shirts and granola bars, they're not going to move to a commercial space and do it by themselves, right? They're they're probably going to have an employee or two. So, that's additional cars. So, I do think that there would be a lot more in and out of the storage facilities uh than is represented in the traffic study. Um, and this traffic study just it kind of reminds me of when we were doing the basalt center circle redevelopment and they said, "Yeah, well, this this building here with 60s something units is going to be less traffic than what it is now." And we all

said, "Oh, well, it's just a dilapidated building now. How could it be how could it be less than that?" Um, so yeah, the the the parking or the traffic study for me um doesn't feel transparent enough or well thought out enough. And I also think we are desperate for housing in this valley, but I don't know that we're hard up for 36 more, you know, luxury rentals. I don't think that I know that you've met technically the requirements for the affordable housing, but with that amount of density, it just and that few units, it doesn't feel worth it to me to pack people in and only get 11 units. And I just think overall it's it's too dense. I think a specific question on the traffic study I'm and correct me if I have any of this wrong, but I'm seeing 14 trips from the multif family housing from the for the AM peak hour, which to me doesn't track with what I would expect from 48 units. um or if there's only 14 people out of 48 that are working locally and need to get to their jobs and the rest can stay home. I think to me that doesn't strike me as the kind of housing we're trying to bring online. So getting more information or adjustments about that traffic study um I think would be helpful because yeah was pretty surprising.

I have a question for the council. Would would the council like to hear from the applicants traffic engineer tonight or at a future meeting to address? Let's do a future meeting if we're going to Yeah, we're already way over. Let's get some comments and get, you know,

get the ball rolling. Um, but let's plan for kind of a follow-up discussion on that. I'll make some quick comments. Um, you know, ostensibly if the traffic went down, that's great. I'm kind of I'm a little bit dubious myself, but even still with without having uh more deed restrictions there about dedicating more of that to affordable housing or resident occupied local workforce given that this is kind of we're going to be doing a change if we do this to the the master plan. I I would like to see more deed restrictions. I think that would be important. you know, let's putting the traffic stuff aside. Um short-term rentals, I think that in including in the um the man caves or the storage units. I mean, I can see that definitely happening. I can see you have short-term rentals, too. You have more I have this weekend next door neighbors doing it. There's tons of cars. There's tons of traffic um uh potentially um and that versus just if a family is living there. So, I I you know, in the interest of not making traffic go any higher, I wouldn't want to see short-term rentals in any of these places. Um, and the only other comment I would make is about the um uh vested rights and phasing. And I think we need to stay with the conditions kind of that um P&Z outlined. I'm not really I'm not keen on the uh separating it or doing what the applicant has proposed. Um, I would like to stay with what PNZ had there. So, those are those are my comments at this point. More will come, but we're just getting started.

Peter, you have anything?

Yeah, I think I mean, just I mean, we're beat beating a dead horse, I guess, but the traffic would be a big deal. I I personally don't even think the roundabout um out of there is going to be a solution for just the entire southside, but I'm not a traffic engineer either. Um the I think there's I guess to sum it up in my opinion there's a lot of ask and not enough give um with kind of all the changes and and the impact in the area and you're stuffing a lot into um a wellthoughtout a lot into a little box and it just doesn't seem very compatible for the 360 around it in my opinion. So we could talk about it all night probably but But we'll have other opportunities. So, um

I think getting more information information next time on addressing Mrs. Mayor's concerns, like I think those should stay top of mind. Like, is that the applicant's responsibility? Is that the town's I think that would help me um ensure that her concerns are met.

And I'm hoping the traffic study will help clarify that for the few lane part. I think the off-site improvements are really going to be a pretty big project. you take a ride over there and realize the infrastructure that needs to go in and the other stuff, water, sewer, you know, our resources are limited for number of units we can serve and the fees that are attached to Southside's fee schedule are are pretty pretty significant. It comes back into our treasury, but it's still a pretty big infrastructure project. I don't think there's really any main sewer. I mean, Miss Mayor constructed a sewer service over there not too many years ago because she was on sewer. So, I don't know how many other residents are there. Myers probably has a single tap and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, there's tap fees and all the other things will be figured out here. I guess there's 57 units. Is it typical multifamily, fire protection, all those things? So, there's a lot.

Should probably plan on a field trip over there. Not necessarily the next meeting, but you know, we have that I mean the traffic more detail on that worked out so we can see a couple of these spots. Um, talk it through together. Lastly, I just want to say because I so value the neighbors in this in Southside and and Miss Mayor in particular, I just I would really reconsider your you know your perspective on the impact that your development would have in a neighborhood. It's like like Ryan said like it's not an island. There are neighbors, there are businesses, there are homes, there are children. And it's to me it's a little disappointing to have you come in here and say we're just going to plop this down here and the impact of it has nothing to do with us. Like this is all of our community. It's all of our jobs to make sure that we can plan this town together, that we can work together, that things can be safe and workable. Um, and so for me, I I would have really appreciated that you're at least interested in hearing from the neighbors and offering some sort of solution whether you think it's your job or not, just just as a community member. I think that's important to have that attitude. I think at the end of the day for me as as you know as desperate as we as a town and a and a valley in an area might be for affordable housing, the trade-off for 11 units for all of the concessions being asked, an amendment to the land you the the master plan land use, a height, you know, variance request, the the traffic increase. There are too many things going against as this project looks right now the way it has been presented tonight that it is not worth the trade-off for 11 affordable housing units.

Yeah, I do agree.

So, this is an industrial use which I appreciate. I think my still provides a great use to the valley. I understand you don't have a lot of workers here right now. I I get it. Listen, you just proposed housing, but then you said, "Oh, we're going to have some catering in here. We're going to have some shipping, maybe some receiving." That's not a storage unit. That's a commercial unit. And maybe this would be better presented as a mixeduse commercial like the rest of Southside in what where you guys are presenting. That's not my deal. I just You guys just h I get you have a bottom line. this you guys are trying to do this. I appreciate it. You're trying to give back, but like there's no green space. There's no there is to me there is not one benefit to this community for this development. And so I would really appreciate if you guys look back and just just take just redraw it. re and I'm sure you have something else that you're going to present and I won't be here but you better believe I'll be out there and you know come on guys we can do better you know I I I just appreciate I appreciate you coming to council trying to get a different view but like we got to have a more focused like I in reading all the letters there was we're not going to have any jobs produced and then there's a there's a line item that says there's going to be six jobs produced so it's like what what are we doing? Are these storage units for cars and boats or are they storage units for someone with a catering shop? Like there's there's just too many options going on with what you guys are presenting. I'm not saying that it's not needed, but for me, this is

just this is just one more stu storage unit for Aspen. And that's not a benefit for for basalt. That's not to say someone basalt will not use it, but let's, you know, let's rethink it. Well, we're good. We're pretty pretty over time here. Um, we have another bite of the apple. Any anything you guys have before we close up? Um, otherwise, we should

um I I'll just touch on um traffic very quickly. So, one study was done while high school was in session um right before uh school let out. Then a request was made to do a second one. So two studies were done different days school was in session uh and those were just ingress egress out of the site and the traffic engineer then also previously had done the southside study site and no considerations were given towards uh any of the residential users using the rafta or public transportation. Uh so no mitigating factors were added to that uh site. Just a an addin to there, but uh we can have Curtis talk about that more uh when we return.

And and we did a second traffic stop. Yeah. Two total. Two days total, different times of year. Um but and the second one showed it's even higher.

Yep. Okay. And maybe also that I don't know if you've seen in the package there's a lot of verbiage around these garage condo units in terms of that they can't be a primary place of work that they can't use be used as housing how it's enforcable and all that. So I think we have made an effort to address it in some ways and I think some of the things you pointed out were examples of how it could be used. that doesn't mean 54 are going to be used for, you know, the things you've pointed out. I mean, he's he has a lot of more experience with these type of projects. So,

in other markets, we've seen about a 30 to 70 split of personal use versus business use uh in these. Uh this is kind of where we've generated numbers from is that 3070 split uh of someone using it as a secondary place of business which would be HOA restricted uh and someone using it as a personal storage for larger toys, cars. You're saying you're saying business to storage 70% personal, 30% business use. That's been kind of the industry average what we've seen um in other similar markets.

I think you know potentially the industry average you're using is from Jackson Hole, Big Sky, some of the core resorts of the western United States. We are 14 15 miles away from one of the greatest resorts in the world. But we're not gonna be, I don't think, accepting of a something to identif that we identify with that's going on in Jackson Hole or Big Sky. This is a different community and you know, even though we're close to the resort and I know there's a big demand for it. There's a project in the pipeline up valley with same sort of model for, you know, storing your Porsche and your other having your mechanic come and work on it, etc. And I think that that that's one of the things that we're trying to um separate from in terms of our own ident identity as a community. I think Angela hit on it best is what do what is this group what do we want to see? Do we want to see storage units that really reflect a high-end client, or do we want storage units to reflect the opportunity for a local workforce, community workforce to store their mountain bikes and their dirt bikes and their skis at a place where they can access them on a seasonal basis, that's the kind of thing I think we're looking for. Um, and I think if you came in with a an affordable housing concept that was a little closer to what we're seeing as the current model, um, which is way over 25% floor area and unit wise, it might be more received better.

Yeah. And it's a good Oh, sorry. It's really great. And I think identity even aside, we're all a little incredulous on the data, you know, on the on the quantitative part as well, like because it's like what is in there exactly how it doesn't seem like the numbers just don't seem to add up for us as far as what the traffic study illustrates.

Yeah. And it is a good spot for housing, right? It is right next to the bus stop. It is transit connected. Like I do want to highlight that if you can lean into that side of the project, it does seem more logical with some of our transit connected housing goals. I just kind of hearing I this has been said many times, but I think looking around the room, I am not seeing anyone who's looked at our little mountain west town and been like, you know what, this needs luxury man caves. You know, I I think we're worried about that being kind of the the lynch pin of the financing here, but the housing portion could be good and beneficial.

All right. Well, we're solid out here. I move that the town council continue.

I I just want to point out that the the the housing portion needs to be somehow carried economically. I wish and we brought it up many times that we could do 100% affordable housing, but we can't. We can't do it. Maybe maybe the town wants to buy it from us and do it. We can't. I wish I'm just, you know, we're we're an industrial um you know, we're we're we're a steel fabricator that needs to move. you know, I'm not even a developer as you know and we're just we've tried to make it work as I said to back into what I thought was maximum community benefit from our point of view and um we've worked closely with James and Michelle on this for two and a half years and we were guided in some ways in this direction I would say you're neutral you're neutral but how we'll all have another bite at the apple You will be

back here in two weeks. Three weeks. Well, you got all the last bite. Last bite. I'll leave it alone. Last bite. So, I think deer, you were saying something. I was saying, mayor, I move that the town council continue the public hearing to April 14th, 2026. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying, "I." I. Thank you for your time tonight and for all the preparation. 14th. We're looking forward to three weeks. I don't think we're going to be ready. We can further continue it if it's three. We'll do if you guys need to move the date on that. We appreciate your time and looking forward to hearing.

Appreciate everyone's time. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have item 7 C, which is a public hearing and second reading ordinance number five series of 2026. Ordinance of the town council of the town of Balt, Colorado amending the town code with the addition of section 88 regarding utilizing automated vehicle identification systems and amending the penalty schedule in appendix C of the town code. And Aaron, you're up with Jeff.

Thank you. Uh uh thanks again. I'm here for the second reading public hearing on the automated vehicle identification uh system uh ordinance uh per Colorado statutes 42410.5. We're required to get approval uh through ordinance for the placement of the Avis cameras as well as the identification of the Avis corridors. Uh through our uh input through the PD as well as uh speed studies conducted by Dac um we've identified uh four different locations on Highway 82 currently that we believe will assist in slowing speeds. Uh those four exact locations are highway 82 eastbound uh between uh West Willlets and Original uh 82 westbound uh between West Two Rivers and Original Road. Uh westbound Highway 82 between Arbony Ranch Road and East Two Rivers and eastbound on Highway 82 between Basalt A and East Two Rivers Road. Uh along with the the approval of an ordinance, uh it would also give us um a way to amend the the model traffic code 110 and.5 to add the $40 fine per each violation uh for these AIS camera violations. Uh $40 is the is currently the highest uh that we could charge for those violations for an AIS violation. Um if approval is granted, Dacch would take the lead with C dot approve uh for permitting process through C dot and getting that taken care of internally. We would uh handle uh our kind of public advisement through a requirement on our website to show that we are moving forward with these as well as a 30-day uh grace um warning period to any violator. uh prior to um this would be a

warning just warnings strictly only prior to kind of going live with um that $40 fine for violators. U in the past I've I've presented or provided uh quite a few documents. I'm hoping that has answered a few questions. Uh this evening there are two uh extra pieces of paper in front of you that were uh late editions. Uh, one is a further breakdown of crash data. Uh, when I first uh provided some of that information, it was a generalized overview of some of the crashes that we deal with. Uh, but this broke it down to um what types of crashes we deal with. Um, kind of a classification I guess would be best described. Um, also I know there has been questions about the addition of Avis cameras in some of our uh residential streets and neighborhoods. Um, there is another sheet there that we have gathered a lot of data uh through our own speed studies and I say we but uh really Justin's been doing a lot of it. Thank you Justin. He's been all doing all of it actually and uh he's collected all that data and thanks to Katherine for putting together in the one page for you all there that will show some of the speed issues that we're having on some of the local streets. Uh so further disc obviously further discussion with Dacch can happen. Um but obviously they would probably want to run their own speed studies prior to any deployment of these AIS cameras if if we so wish. Um I know Jeff probably has a few things to add. Um but I'm happy to answer any questions. Jeff,

I think you covered it pretty well. Uh just briefly reiterate that this is the ordinance that would authorize the placement of the speed cameras. The council already approved a contract with DI Decretch to implement the speed cameras. That contract is contingent upon approving this ordinance, but those two pieces are are lined up. Uh this is a public hearing, so we should take any public comment that there might be. And that's all I have.

Great. Thank you. I will open the public hearing um for uh anyone who'd like to make comments on this ordinance. Ordinance number five, series of 2026 if they can come up and speak. Otherwise, uh if there's anyone online, they they can do the same. Don't see anybody raising their hand or coming forward. So, I'll close the public hearing, open it up for uh questions and comments from council. Just a clarification, I know it only gives folks tickets if they're going 10 miles an hour, but does it capture their data if they're going 1 to nine miles over, even though it doesn't give them a ticket?

So, uh, from my understanding from this statute, and Jeff, please correct me if I'm if I'm correct, but um, tickets can be given u less than 10. Mhm. Um but whatever violation like that set number we set that is where that cutoff is set is it's not collecting everyone. It it is collecting only the data that is needed to produce a ticket. Got it. Not not everyone. Uh it's very different from an LPR. License plate readers gather all all vehicles that travel by. Uh this is where we set that limit. Nothing below that is is generated and that's per statute.

Set it a 10. If you're going one mile over, we don't know that. Correct. Great. Thanks.

I would just like to I appreciate this extra data. I would like to know from the company what their if this is successful in in maintaining the speeds on Highway 82. I would love to see it. You know, I think East Valley Road's a no-brainer. or the other ones actually seem not too bad, but just, you know, I love it as a deterrent, but I would also like to use it for our I feel our citizens are obviously using Highway 82, but you know, I think at East Valley Road, it's like to me it's the no-brainer solution, and I just I still can't comprehend how we're not just putting it there. Also, I I know it's not a money maker for them. I know they have to make money, too. But I would really encourage us to be rolling it out there, too, because that's we put in chicans. People still complain. I get it. I drive that road. I see it. But like, you know, but looking at all the other ones, I mean, I think it's not too crazy. So, but but I would like to know on the what is their roll out method on other streets other than Highway 82 that show a great money maker because to me it's to me it's a a a police resource, right? It's helping you guys. It's helping us as citizens. So, I I just want to find that happy balance. But I think this is great and I think it'll be a great revenue source for the town sadly. And that's not I I just want to say like I I speeding is a scourge in the west in western Colorado. Our roads are some of the most dangerous. I appreciate all the data that you've provided. Um and um and I you know you see even I don't know if they have any actually study data but you know the the pick and

sheriff's office is pulling over a lot more people the last few months up valley and you see people are in certain spots they slow down more um and it's still not enough. People still drive way too fast on 82. I think it's a safety issue. Um, so I I I hope the public and everybody understands that we this is there's two main reasons for doing this. One is safety with speed. And the other is to allow our police officers to to do other work, more high value work, less dangerous work than being out on Highway 82 just, you know, giving tickets. You guys have other things to do to serve the community. So I just want the public to understand that that is the impetus for this. Um I do though from a commercial standpoint I would hope that the vendor um DACA would um give us the same commercial terms and conditions for other um for for East Valley because you know I think these this data here is kind that it Ryan's right like we need a solution over there too because it seems like there's a a recurring thing going on with a lot of people driving way too fast 20 miles over on that street is insane.

Yeah. Um I mean that's what is it a 25? Well, it goes 15 in the commercial and then up to 20 in the residential. Okay. So yeah, you're I mean you're exceedingly fast. Yeah. Um so I mean I would love to see the vendor provide the same terms and conditions. I.e. they're not invoicing us, you know, doing extra. It's making it worth it for them to do that for us there because they're also doing 82 and I think in aggregate that's a good deal for them and I'd like to see us explore getting them out there on the other um on East Valley as well.

Yeah, no problem. Yeah, we can continue those conversations with them and ask them to provide those data studies as well, the speed studies as well there. See what we can truly find. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Could you speak more to how much time this frees up for higher value work and then what's the pie chart of what we could do with our police time if folks weren't sitting on 82? Time might be a difficult uh whatever metric you

Sure. No, I understand. Um I think the best description would be uh I think of as a as a force multiplier. Um, I could, you know, being not fully staffed and even if we are fully staffed, having, you know, if we have one officer working, that officer is in one area conducting like running radar. Let's stick to speed. Um, and that's just one area. Then the officer stops one car. Now we have four cameras, four locations and while an officer can be in another area in an offhighway neighborhood being visible, uh that officer can still conduct this step two of enforcement where DACA sends a violation to us. we approve it. And I just as this officer is now in four locations um at one time while still being able to patrol different locations and being available for um other calls for service as you heard the sirens earlier tonight. Um and and still being able to slow traffic down and hopefully reduce some of those crash numbers would would be almost more important. um as as we see over the over but time time might be difficult is just uh I think just being able to be there more for uh in our neighborhoods more and visible uh you know where where we can not as we talked about on or you talked about being on the highway and the dangers of being there just in one location. I again I think of it just as a force multiplier. Um, and I I've seen it personally living in Glenwood and how it has reduced speeds. Uh, it's been very successful. So, I just I'm hoping for that here.

I I just want to echo the comments over here. I really think it would be a good faith for us to to land a camera on one of these back streets that is not a quote unquote revenue generating Sure. camera. um uh you know because that that certainly would act as a multip uh force multiplier and maybe when that construction is taking place over by Crown Mountain um and the concern about sort of the back avenue there would be a spot as well uh to think about because you know people are going around because they want to hurry um in my opinion

we're we're conducting a speed study right now over on Willlets as yeah there's the camera's over there right now Cool. Yep. Um and then um I I also do just want to say I I uh just just as my opinion that I I highly highly doubt that if this information that was gathered um and this just again my opinion any information that's going to be gathered would be 100% secured from somebody wanted to get it. Um, I'll still vote in favor of the safety bit, but I'm not doing it because I think the information of the that collected is untouchable. So, I just want to make sure that's known.

Yeah. Thanks. Well, I did want to given that we got a letter from Alex Sanchez, I think it's important to just clarify yet again that it's our understanding that the data collected from these cameras cannot and will not be shared with other law enforcement agencies. Correct. under any circumstances. Yes, that's so I guess I'm saying is that's what we're being told, but it would not be a far reach for somebody to be like, "Yeah, I don't really care about that." and and collect the data and take it and use it for purposes that we see it happening right now. Totally fair.

And it just but just to add to that though, if you had two officers out at the two points full-time giving tickets, that data would be accessible as well in the same in the same way. So just you know apples to apples. It actually would be more accessible if we were writing the tickets um per coral request through our through our office. Um but this data is not we are not allowed to release or disclose any information through coral request per the statute. It's very different if we were the ones writing writing the tickets. Yeah. I I don't I don't want to I don't want to derail it because that's one ticket at one time when we're talking 4,000 cars getting zapped by a camera. So,

I mean, it's different perspective, I guess. I think that's

the crux of what my concern is too is even though the contract says it will not be shared unless legally mandated. I think the concerns I've heard from different leaders in our community, particularly from Latino serving nonprofits in our community, is that we're not working with a federal administration that has been following typical legal decorum on those things or that would, you know, it's an administration that would be open to changing the law to mandating that that data be shared. and it would be a lot more data than our local for police force being able to ticket people. Um, and I and I think there's another piece of it too that I heard from folks over the past week or two is that regardless of how tight the contract is or us reading the contract or our legal team reading the contract, I think what I'm hearing from people and trying to to take seriously is that installing surveillance at this point in time is instilling fear in the community. I had multiple people tell me that they knew that there would be parents that wouldn't drive their kids to school because they wouldn't want to go past the cameras. And that really struck a chord with me like we should be a town where you're not afraid to drive your kid to school. I don't think your average person is looking into the contract and looking through the the legalities that I think you have really thoughtfully set in place to make sure that this data is protected as possible. like your average person isn't looking about that. They just have a lot of fear right now. So, I think that really led me to wonder if we could hold off on this because the urgency of the the fear that that our local Latino community is

having like specific to surveillance right now seems to not outweigh the benefit that we'd get. and and we could delay this maybe until November when we know, you know, what might happen within midterms, what accountability measures DHS may be held to um to help assuage some of those fears. I think that would be very important to me. I'll just make one comment response to this that I just want to be clear that these speed cameras are different than license plate readers where they collect information for the purpose of data sharing with agencies to catch bad guys. But there has been the use of sharing that information for all these other purposes. The speed cameras are not set up like that. And it's there's the contract, but there's also the law. And the law, again, as Aaron said, is these the information isn't collected. And with the data to be shared for law enforcement purposes, these are also not criminal justice records. They're not subject to open records acts request by statute. So, so there is I just want to be clear that there is a a great distinction between this and license plate readers. And so with respect to some of the public sentiment, I know Erin's been, you know, tried to express many of these points in these meetings and maybe if there's some public messaging the town might do to help make that a little bit more clear that could address maybe some of your concerns.

Yeah. I think and to be clear, Aaron has been so patient. He's provided extensive information and taken this really seriously, which I really respect and appreciate. So, thank you. Um, but I think the point that I was hearing from folks, even when I explained about the Avis versus the LPR was like people don't care about that. They're just worried, you know. Um, like they they don't have the time to to look into the nuances of an AIS system versus an LPR. I didn't know the difference before I read this contract. Um, so it it wasn't necessarily realistic to expect people to understand that.

It would be good to have some education as part of this because I mean like to Jeff's point or even beyond Jeff's point, the device doesn't doesn't do that. It does not just surveil it. I mean, it's not like, oh, you can hack get No, no, no. It's like it's the different thing. You know what I mean? So, uh, it just doesn't do that. And, and we do have, you again, we have 30 days in this requirement period to for warnings and public information on the website. Um, that that can be included as well. Um, you know, using social media. Uh, there's a there's a lot of thing ways we could try to address some of those fears and concerns. Um,

I mean we can write like a one pager that really does kind of dive into and explain it educational in Spanish, you know, give it to Alex to distribute. I mean, I think that there is a lot of education um that we can provide to to help, you know, but but I I mean, I think that the benefit to our community, particularly if we take those steps to to educate the concerned members of our community, um and their fears some is is is great, you know. I mean, I think yeah, it's worthwhile. Community police academy is probably an excellent venue for sure. communicate that stuff.

I would also like people on council to realize that this is the least of your worries. You could have someone stand on Highway 82 with a camera and videotape everyone for as long as they wanted and submit the data to whoever they wanted and upload it on YouTube like we like.

So, yes. Does this seem like an invasion of someone privacy? I get where you guys are coming from, but like there's so many bigger things out there that can can trump this in a sorry in a different way. Didn't mean to say that, but like it's not we are trying to protect our speed on our highway. We are not trying to get anyone in any other way. And there are so many other like what you are what people are suggesting could be done by anyone at any time and we can't do anything about it. So, but I do think it matters like there's a difference between someone random and your government doing it.

Yeah, but we're not doing that. We're protecting the speed on our highway. We So, I I get where the community is coming from. I appreciate their concerns, but at some point we also have to have law and order on our own highway through our own town. And I obviously support this.

Yeah. I think we also have a responsibility to people who are involved in these accidents and collisions who will suffer harm for the rest of their lives because of people not obeying the speed limit. You know, I I do see how it make it might make some people feel better for us to put it off, but the reality is is that it can always go back to how it is right now. You know, even if we progress in November and it feels more comfortable, that's temporary, too. And I if I think too much about how many cameras there are everywhere looking at us all the time, I can get really spooked. I read the circle and I recommend everyone read it. Um

the promotion that comes

I'm I I don't enjoy that reality of the society that we have built but it is the reality. Um and so for me and I really do appreciate all of the correspondence from from people in the community on on both sides. I have really enjoyed that people are are staying on top of this issue and communicating. Um, but we just went through the budget. You know, we continue to have vacancy savings because our police force is understaffed. Um, they're overburdened and understaffed. I think in general it's a good idea to reduce police and civilian interactions on busy highways. Um, I think that this is something that we can use to make our roads safer for everyone. And I hope that people will still keep driving their kids to school. And you know, people are probably driving past these cameras in other places and not even realizing it. Um, but yeah, I think that we do we owe it to the people who travel on the roads to help keep them safe. At

the end of the day, it's a perceived threat versus a re very real threat in my mind. and we we have the obligation to try and address the real threat um and of course mitigate the perceived threat as much as we can. But yeah, I mean everybody's right. I think we I in the name of safety, it's the right thing to do. We just need to be eyes wide open and understand that, you know, our favorite buzz word is unintended consequences, right? He's going to carve it on his desk. But let me just before we do your thing.

So I would like to part of this um when emotions made you know if we need to do it. If we don't it's fine but make sure we have a fullthroated communications campaign about this where you know all the channels make like it should be the school newsletters like everybody when you're coming in like these are there like we're not we want you to slow down. don't want you to trigger the camera and make sure everybody really understands and you let's talk to Alex. Let's let's let's really go and make sure people understand this so they avoid the ticket and they understand what it does and we're all good.

Yeah, it's the education, engineering, and enforcement. We've been educated to the nth degree on the speeding issue on Highway 82 through many many many multiple exercises of traffic counts and data collection and backups and accidents. The the truth is is there's a problem and we've come to an engineering solution that's about a privatized as you could get it. I think in terms of who the the vehicle we're looking for is. We're not looking for all the vehicles. We're looking for the three out of 25 or whatever it is. One out of, you know, one out of 15. Um, and then the enforcement issue is part of the conclusion to education and engineering is to get people to slow down. I mean, it is unbelievable uh to try to drive from and it's it's probably just as bad from Aspen to the County line, but it's really severe from Old Snow Mass to just past Blue Lake. And from there, you can't turn left out of anywhere between Blue Lake and Carbondale Light. It's impossible. to petty in the morning or the afternoon. I go around the block because I can't cross from the ranch at Roing Fork and go left down to Carbondale light. I just go back up to and then I go back around the back way. It's it's terrifying. And you know, none of these acceleration deceleration lanes are appropriate in my opinion. The Blue Lake intersection is a gigantic disaster waiting to happen. Raft buses are included in this survey, I hope, because they tend to drive a little faster sometimes. I get it. But, you know, we've spent a long time talking about this and trying to come up with a good solution. We're not targeting people. We're targeting violators. And it may prove to help someone if they were if they did get the data somehow and they

went after somebody and we could say, "Oh, no. He this is the wrong guy. He got the wrong guy. he wasn't driving the vehicle or there was he there's a circumstance here that he is legal or he is not you know I mean there's another side to this that could prove somebody's innocence and not prove that they're here without due process that's what I think there's there's a lot and you know you know the thing too that I see is it's a lot of young guys a lot of young people driving to work in the morning driving home at night that are going to parachute and they just want to get Maybe they just need to learn to slow down.

I think just one other area. I think the public information campaign is critical. Like let's meet with Alex, let's meet with the schools, let's meet with Valley Settlement, English and Action, like

make sure let's listen to them, like hear what they have to say. And I almost wish we'd done that before the policy. Like I think that should have happened before the policy to be like how does this land? Are there other methods? Like one of the things I heard from folks was like is there any other way to do this? Like could you hire more police which is the problem? The whole reason we're doing this is because we can't. Um, but I think that piece especially in this moment is really important to me that if if we're not able to do that before like this seems like it will pass like going out with as strong of a communications and a listening plan would be great and that seems to be consensus there. And I think the other concern that I have is like I don't think policing decisions should ever be based off of revenue generation, which I feel like I hear people say and then we kind of walk back like I think law enforcement should always be rooted in public safety and we can't think about making a million dollars to fund buildings that we need to find funding for. But I I really just think that has to be completely separate from this decision. And there's are public safety reasons to do this like these these crash data the crash data on injuries and hit and runs and things like that that is compelling I think just for me the urgency with which traffic crashes versus the urgency that I hear from people about their fear about immigration enforcement like doesn't weigh out right now but at some point I'm all on board if this was a year from now, I feel like I'd vote yes without questioning it. But

I'd go along with it if there was no revenue. I think it's that important that we control our highways and we offer the public a safe access up and down the valley. And regardless of who they are,

I think that's the main goal here. And it says right on the side of the police cars, I think that community safety is top priority. So, let's just make it the top priority. we can adjust. It's contracts for a year, whatever it is. And I think that it's also important to look at these subdivision streets that are out there because a lot of that happens too. And you know, um it's it's we can affect change in the behaviors and maybe that'll help affect change in the political decision making, but we're not able to connect. If we can't connect those two things, then it's not going to get us. There's not going to be a change. We have to change the culture, change the wording, change the messaging, approach it from a different point of view in education and try to get elected officials at the top of the food chain to pay attention and and change it. But that will group that can only do so much. And if we can control our little piece of territory here a little bit better, maybe save the courts some time as well to deal with real issues, then, you know, I'm I'm all in. And uh

I have one clarifying question. I'm so sorry. Just because we're talking about revenue generation and I just want to make sure that I haven't missed something because my understanding was that the the funds that are generated from this can only be used on road safety projects. That that is only for state agencies. It's it doesn't there's nothing that has to or directs it to anything specific uh at the municipal level. We clarified that in the last meeting that I think maybe you missed or Yeah. No, I was here. Oh, because I asked that question and Jeff said it was a

Yeah, the statute limits revenue from state um implemented speed cameras to road safety improvements, but it doesn't for local governments. Okay. We can start a driver's ed program. Cana I get the sense that we've landed statute somewhere as a council. Yeah. Um I'll give it a go. No, no, wait. Hold on. Can I make a motion and add East Valley Road study to it

so that like they have the the company has to like what where are we on that because it's obviously a problem and how can we how can I as can I make a motion that says I want to approve this. Let's go. But then also that this company has to add the cameras or do the study to then add the cameras on East Valley Road. Is that possible? The ordinance, it doesn't require any changes to put a speed camera on East Valley Road because it's it's allowed under the statute just for these speed zones.

So it' really be an amendment to the contract with Dacert. Um, and so if council wants to separately direct staff to bring back a contract amendment, you know, something. I'm fine. Mayor, I move the town council adopt ordinance number five series of 2026 on second reading. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Pam, will you please call the role? Sure. Okay. Let's begin with Rick Stevens. Yes. Angel Dupuchart. Yes. Ryan Slack. Yes. David Knight, yes. Peter Schindler, yes. Anna Berman, no. Angela Anderson, yes. Motion carries.

Thanks, Aaron. Thanks, Jeff. And maybe just ask the question. Would you guys like staff to come back with an amendment to the tech? Yeah, Dwy's probably wrote it. I mean, it's like this. It's the simplest. So, we can talk to ACE and bring that back for you guys to formally consider. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Keep the time. Thank you, Chief. Jeff would Jeff one more.

All right. Issue is what warrants the percentage is based on a what warrants to change whether it's traffic calming or more enforcement. There's a a threshold. I was about that 30% of 100% of people are speeding. There's there's a warrant. It's like a warrant for a stop, you know, traffic play, right? Yeah. So, what's our tolerance for a 33% 22%. Maybe there's something we can look at there. Okay. We got we got I'll scream by your house. We have our next steps. Okay. Next up is 7D. 7D. All right. Let's go, guys. 9:30. Seriously,

7D. Public hearing and second reading ordinance number six series of 2026. Ordinance to the town council of the town of Salt, Colorado, approving a lease agreement with the arts campus at Willlets Taka for unit R700 block 7 condominiums. We got Katherine and Jeff.

Yeah. Um I'll just introduce this while we're bringing back second reading the lease with DA. And we have um Anna here if you have any questions for the youth empowerment space. Since first reading, I'd just add per your request, there is a provision in the lease that Taka report out on an annual basis on um their use of the space and the programming. Um the lease would take effect April 1st and um I just thank Aaron and Justin for their help emptying out um the treasures we had in that space so that they came back.

Sure. There were lots of treasures. Mayor I move this is a public hearing. So, I will open the public hearing for someone to come up if they so desire. Come on, man. You care. No, no one's online. No one's coming up in the room. Close the public hearing unless there's questions. I'd entertain a motion. Mayor, uh, I move the town council adopt Gordon's number six series of, uh, 2026 on second reading. Second, 67. Drop that. It's like a year in June or something. Um,

all the uh all those in favor, please signify by saying I hang out. I'm going to get to this point in the meeting and make it. She'll be so proud. That's why you listen to Monk's chant. Yeah. I don't I still don't care. Mr. Basalt could have been here if he really cared. Thank you. Um item 70 resolution number 14 series to 2026 resolution the town council of Basalt Colorado approving an agreement with Kaiser Construction for pool maintenance and repair services and we have Matt. Welcome. Hello. It's good to see you guys. See you. Thanks for waiting.

Yeah. No, no problem. Uh I'll just give my quick little I I think really it's it's all pretty well broken out in the memo. Um but as you guys know, our pool is a gem. Our community loves it. We love providing that service to our community. It's already been over 5 years since the last, you know, since we did kind of major renovations at the pool. Um pool ownership can be really costly, particularly in our climate and elevation. Um we explored some of this work in the fall. We realized that the scope of work was large enough we had to go out to an RFP. Um, so this is kind of a combination of kind of long-term planned work as well as some um unplanned work as new issues announce themselves. Some louder some made louder announcements than others. Um, some of this work can wait. Ultimately, it will all need to get done at some point. Um, and so we've kind of outlined some multiple scopes and costs in the memo. Um, we're obviously happy to discuss it further. I just also want to just give some public recognition to Katherine, um Justin, Phil, Gyos, as well as support from Gloria and Doug just to help me through this process because this is not my wheelhouse. Um so that they've been really supportive and helpful throughout the process. Um, and yeah, as an aside, I we have a a bit of a budget shortfall, but I will probably probably be helping that by $80 to $120 once those speed cameras get implemented. I'm kidding. I'm a safe driver. I am. I really am. Uh, I don't speed. I was just trying to bring a little I was sitting back there like, can I can I make a joke about speeding? Um,

yeah, but I thought a little levity at 9:30 might be helpful. Thank you.

I have a just a couple. I think all the stuff is like 100%. I guess where I worry is I'm sure Kaiser Construction is going to do a great job. I wonder where as a town and it's something we should probably look at and I don't know who could manage it. I know everyone's busy, but like you know, I got a roof bid like that. Granted, I know people But like I I just wonder if some of this could be done outside of this scope. I think obviously the pool stuff is very specific and and should be done maybe by one contractor, someone responsible, but the mapping of the plumbing. There's good plumbers out there that you know I could provide a list. you know, not even you have to use my guys, any guys, but just like I just wonder where you put it under a con, you put it under the contractor, then he's marking it up and and now we're in this they're they're giving a high bid. As a town, we just I feel pay a lot more, hence the $800,000 bathroom, than you would for something else. And so I just wonder where as a town when we do these large RFPs, granted it's all under the pool window, the roof is a very easy bid. There's four different roof contractors in Basalt. I'm sure one of them would love to put a little sign up there to say roof done by these guys and we saved seven grand,

you know, plumbing done. Like I I just wonder where we are as a town on that or if it has to be done in this like large RFP format and and I get it. These guys are going to manage it. These guys are then responsible for it so that it kind of takes that responsibility. I just it was kind of a larger comment sorry at 9:35 just to get that understanding from the town on some of this because I feel like we do get lumped into these large contracts that as a government You know, I think we're viewed as a cash cow and some people some people might not even know of the RFP to go map out the the the plumbing. Like, yeah, that's not a

I'm not saying it's hard. It It's just like there are people that would do this probably for a good price for the town rather than not to say these guys are going to milk us. Sorry, these guys, but it's just a general large comment. I like that. Yeah,

I can try to answer some of that. So, under the PE procurement code, you cannot break up a project into different little scopes to avoid a procurement process, but that I think that's more geared towards like like a specific projects. And you correct me if I'm wrong that but this seems like a bunch of little projects that are a bunch of projects that are at one location. Not just like for example if we're building the pool building the pool we couldn't break up one contract for this lane one contract for that lane you know something like that. It's here it seems to be a bunch of little projects. So, probably could go through a informal bid process to get a roof to do the uh the roof scope of work, but I Matt, I'll let you speak to this, but the thinking was probably it was more efficient just to have one contractor come in and handle all the little projects that happen to be at the one location.

Yeah, I think that's well said. And I I do think, you know, without having a great understanding of of some of all the other projects happening around town, I think the pool is a little bit unique in terms of that very issue is is going to kind of be have a light shone on it. Um because of the nature of the complexity of the pool systems and how um yeah, just how all these things can kind of happen in one location. Um, but I do I I agree with what you said and I also hear that for sure. Um, I think there's also probably some efficiencies to be found for Matt, right? Not going to Oh, I'm not I'm just

six times three or four 24 different contractors doing three or four bids for each little thing, you know, like that's not feasible. Wasn't Wasn't Kaiser the guys that did Willlets? Triangle Park. Triangle Park. Yeah, Triangle Park. So they they have some experience with the town. Tri Yeah, Willlets, Triangle Park, whatever they

the burger cake. Um yeah, so they have experience with the town. The government RFP process is pretty interesting. We did a lot of that and it's got a lot of criteria. It's based on qualifications, prior experience, your ability to cash flow the project. There's a lot of things that aren't included in a typical competitive bid that government's accountable to. So, I I don't have a problem going through the RFP process, but once a person gets into the system, they a contractor can really stay in the system too and do multiple projects and you can see that, you know, everywhere. um they become sort of so every once in a while maybe there's some checks and balances and you go out and shop around a little bit but if they have a proven track record and good experience and they show up when something's broken four or five years later not four or five days but if something wears out within a two year three year good guys will come back and take care of it you know so I think uh if we have value added type of relationships with these guys and we trust them and

we do it because at the end of the day, there's nothing worse than chasing somebody around that didn't finish the last 10%. Yeah. I don't usually get into the minutia of a lot of, you know, this because I trust that you understand the pool and Justin a lot more than I do, but I am curious. The hot water going to the toilets, does that mean every Don't worry, solar hot water. Well, so so this is where I'm going with this. Of course, as you know, energy. Um, steam. So, does it mean that every toilet that's flushed at the pool is flushing heated water? No, we we found it in the uh in two of Justin might be able to help.

That's from putting his hand in there. Yeah. In the men's restroom. Um actually, no, I guess that's just one toilet then. Uh the men's restroom just in the toilet. And it's the weirdest thing. Just one toilet in the men's restroom. That's because I was like, "Wow, that sounds incredibly wasteful from an energy perspective to be heating water to flush it down the toilets." And I was like, "We probably should address that." Uh, but if it's just one toilet and then um

one rogue toilet, just one rogue toilet. Um, the the painting of the lap pool, I'm just curious cuz that actually sounds like a rather large project. Yeah. And so how much of the $120,000 is attributed to that and what does it accomplish? Is the paint currently flaking? Is it are we like inhaling paint as I'm swimming laps like paint chips?

Um so my understanding is that it's kind of a generally a necessary maintenance step for any pool when we're about at that point. what you'll see when we, you know, when we take off the pool, you can like come by before, um, before we do the work, but, uh, what you'll see is small cracks in some lanes and then those cracks fill up with this like algae that is very hard to get out of there unless you're scrubbing down into those cracks. And so that will help just take away that. So, it's aesthetics. Um, it will also, um, yeah, it provides kind of that seal. And I wish I could maybe speak to the technical benefits of it a little more and I'm happy to do a little more research and follow up with you on that, but my understanding is it's something that needs to be done every 5 to 8 years depending on the product that you're using and it's kind of like that it's it's time.

So it's like a coding kind of. Yeah. And so that that is a huge line. It is a large line item on the um proposal. Um and there is prep work that goes into it. So, um, you know, it's like power washing and sanding, and it's not just slapping on paint onto the existing layer. They prep it first and then and then put the product down. And I think part of the expense there as well is just a specialized paint product that costs more than normal paint because it has to deal with constant chemicals and sun exposure.

On on the budget front, u the the financial implication section is really good. Just to make sure though, um, we have adequate funds that either in the fund balance or won't be spent this year. So, we that's that's kind of what the idea was, right? We're going to use those. Yeah. This this would come out of a post funding. Okay. And um, as you saw earlier, we didn't expend everything that we had budgeted for last year, so we came out with a positive fund balance. Okay. I would also I'm not against this. I'm just it was a big large general question. I would encourage council. I think everything that Matt has brought up is actually very crucial to the pool.

I think the muratic acid thing is actually huge and should 100% be addressed. I think painting the roof is actually just a band-aid. So, I would go ahead and just replace like I think it's a tiny little roof. Yeah. But I think everything that is brought up in this is 100% warranted. It's one of our treasures as a town. We have post funds. So, so don't take don't take it as I'm I'm against what Matt is presenting. I just had a general question on on some of the scope of it and it's 100% right. Someone's going to get in there and and and map out that room and then it's going to make it easier for anyone else going in there. So,

so I'm not trying to be a naysayer. I just wanted to understand how the town did it. But I would fully encourage and support all of the things besides that my kids were hoping the pool was going to open this weekend. So now I have to disappoint them, but that's a different story. So what you're proposing, Ryan, is the total cost for to do all six items at the total cost of 169 268. Do it. I I would I agree. We don't want to defer me. No, you're just going to do we have that amount of extra money? Heck yeah. Post was like a quick back envelope in my That's what Gloria told me. That's it. Just like that. Matt's like,

she's like, "Oh, making other people cry, the pool." So, mayor, I move that the town council adopt resolution number 14 series of 2026. Uh oh. But are is that including fully funded? That's fully funed. 100%. Do it all. make amend that a load in drag. So to in just to be clear, the motion would be to include all six of the items. Yeah. Including replacing the roof of the pump house building. Don't Yeah. All six items at the cost of 169,268. Second. Yeah. Is that Is that what your motion included? Yes, sir.

Okay. Then was there a second for that? Second. I think you clarified your motion. I think we're good. So, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. This meeting is getting off the rails. I like it. Wait till the last one. Thank you guys. We really appreciate it. Thanks, Matt. All right. Next up, can we like negotiate that it opens earlier now since we fully We have item 7F. I can't believe you're here. Don't make me baseball. Chris is in overtime.

All right. 7F resolution number 15 series of 2026, resolution of the town council of Basalt, Colorado, approving an agreement for professional services with Good Earth Landscaping and Maintenance LLC. Chris and Justin.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Justin Foreman, public works director, and I have with me Chris Biser, town arborist and horiculturist. Before you tonight is the annual mowing and garden seasonal maintenance contract. This style of maintenance contract has been in place since 2014 with requests for proposals issued every few years and annual extensions in between. As as outlined in your packet, uh this contract covers a substantial amount of work at various frequencies across town owned, select non-owned properties, and various town rights away. Um staff would like to highlight the most significant change this year is the addition of two parks within Stoots Mill along with their associated tree and lawn maintenance. The total contract cost for this year is approximately $413,000 which is within the 2026 approved budget. And for context, seasonal maintenance and mowing are funded through multiple sources. Uh Doug alluded to them earlier, but up to 20% of revenue from the voter approved 1% sales tax from November 2016 dedicated to parks, open space, and trails. 25% of the 4% lodging tax, and any remaining funds are allocated from the general fund uh coming out of the 1070 fund. Um, so looking ahead, staff intends to issue a new RFP this winter for future contract and any additional yearly renewals. And we also want to note that costs will are expected to increase over time due to inflationary pressures as well as the addition of new maintenance areas such as the Midland Avenue streetscape and as the Lake Modern project rolls out. So, we're happy to answer any questions you may have for this year's maintenance contract.

Thank you. Uh what questions uh do you all have? Who approved midb? I I just think those guys do a really nice job. We work with them a lot down at Willlets in the park for line and fields and they picked up the task of doing that for us kind of on a free basis. So, and uh familiar with them and watch them work and they do a nice job. They have a good standard that you guys have established for maintaining our stuff. I'm good with it. You know, I don't I don't know that you'll find anybody that can compete with them really, especially in the Mid Valley area.

Yeah, we you know, so we do send this out for RFP every couple of years, honestly, to keep them honest with their pricing. Um, also, so we have that opportunity to shop around. As this contract has gotten more complicated over the years with the scope, the sheer scope that it covers, I mean, we've got somewhere between 25 and 30 parks, depending on how you split it up, 150 plus garden spaces, all of Willlets, more or less, all the rightways, all the parks in there. Several parks that nobody even knows exist in Willlets. If you've never been to the block three plaza, I would encourage you to go take a look. Um, you know, it has gotten harder to find contractors to bite on this. Uh when we went out last round in 2024, uh we did get two bids, I believe, one from Good Earth as well as Daily Property Management. Um we found that pricing is kind of all over the place because generally the newer contractors looking at this don't really wrap their heads around the scope of what's going on. It's actually why we've really leaned on Good Earth in these years to they seem to understand that. Uh we've had a really good working relationship with them and frankly it takes a lot of work off my shoulders to be able to trust that they're getting out there on a weekly basis and getting all this stuff done without me having to, you know, breathe down their necks about every little quality issue. The documentation is incredible like with all this stuff, you know, kind of spelling out everything they do and how they do it, where they do it, the diagram. I mean, it's really when you guys put Yeah.

I mean, the thoroughess of the mulch map. Yes. It's unreal. So, on that alone, I'm going to say, mayor, I move the town council adopt resolution number 15 series of 2026. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying, "I." Thank you. Thank you guys. The town looks awesome. That uh that mulch map is made from our tree inventory, by the way. Well, listen, that's that's attributed to you and the I mean, you guys are doing such a great job. You tell me it's awesome. We can have a framed mulch map as a parting gift. All right, last item.

Home stretch. 7G 7G resolution number 16 series of 2026 resolution of the town council Basalt Colorado approving a contract for design and construction services to renovate Cliff's Hillside Park. We have Katherine.

Uh thanks mayor. Tonight I'm bringing to you a contract for design and construction services um related to the renovation of Cliffs Hillside Park. Um town staff has been aware of the park's plate features and that they do not meet current standards for some time. as was recently identified in our CERSA analysis. Um, in 2024, a park asset study was completed for the town and adopted by council. That study identified Cliff as a high priority park for improvement. Um, and in town council's 2025 strategic work plan. It included a goal of improving Cliff Hillside Park. Um, therefore, last year, town staff conducted an outreach effort on the replacement of playground equipment, both online and inerson feedback was positive regarding the upgrades to the park. And in August 2025, council was presented with post2026 work plan that included an outline for renovations to the park. uh staff initiated an RFP process for the design and construction of the improvements this year and received proposals from five wellqualified teams and the leading three teams um we interviewed uh to talk with them about their ideas. Um the post committee along with town staff recommended moving forward with a team led by Rocky Mountain Custom Landscapes. Um and in the 2026 budget under long range operating financial plans there is um $68,814 identified for the project. Um however the proposed contract is for $250,000. Um, this project will require a postbudget amendment if approved and the funding would come from the fund balance as presented to you in your 2025 quarter 4 financial report tonight. So, we're happy to answer any questions you have about this project.

All right. Thank you very much. Questions? Who wants to go first? I was wonder what did the fish cost at Arbony? Uh, that cost 455,000. Oh my god. Just for the fish though, not the whole plus um public works did some significant site grading and site. Holy smokes. I just I was going to say 250 sounds like a lot, but given that number, I No, and it's I think the Cersa thing is probably the biggest part and it is a liability for the town. It is the upkeep of our stuff. As much as I don't want to spend the town's money, I think

I mean these play structures with the number of ADA and safety requirements that are required kind of blow your mind. Like the um swings we put in Basalt River Park, those two swings, those are like $40,000. So, are you replacing the swings there, too? Sorry. That'll be part of the design effort. Scrape it and replace, right? So, it'll be the whole thing all the way down to I took a a walk there today because it had been a hot minute since I've been up there down to like the barbecue zone with the That's all included in this look at

Yeah. And then it it's intended to be a light touch, not, you know, an overthe-top. It's a small pocket park that's intended to, you know, be a quiet space, but, you know, activated um minimally um for for that neighborhood. Are all those regulations, are they state? Are they federal? Are there like ones we can point to that are super helpful and ones that we can point to that are just kind of red tape?

No, no, no. They're they're like um ASM like material standards and like fall protection and their um their hard and fast rules that you can't buy that are I guess national um national designs national big playground making it pricey selfishly we should have done this five years ago at the end of the day we yeah we like have we identified this as a high priority park this is what post money is for Yep. You know, you know, we should we should It's unfortunate that it costs so much to do business these days, but shucks. Yeah. Sure does. Mayor Oh,

yeah. Cliff Elmont was the only public works employee Saul had when I moved here, literally. And he took care of that space by himself, everything else. And I think we should add Elmont to the park. Cliff Elmont Park. I'll make that. I agree. Mayor, I move that the town council adopt resolution number 16 with a possible investigation of adding the name. We can just number 16 series of 2026 on one of those nice expensive signs that we approved a $100,000 sign minimum already in the sign budget. Does Cliff Oh, yes. I know it is. Yeah. The sign budget is separate. The I know, but Cliff's gets a sign. Yes, Cliff gets

Cliff gets a sign. Well, now the park needs to match the sign. I mean, the sign is so fancy. Is there a second? I didn't hear a second. Second. Second. So, so discussion on the motion. Um, can we just I I would prefer we just make a motion to change the name of the park to Cliff Elmont's party. Well, has the sign been made? The sign is already It's already there. No, they just have a little placard that's like they can throw in another word. They could add Elmont. See how much Don't make it $50,000 word. Let's Let's I take it back. It's 10:00 and we're all tired. Let's maybe just leave it. Just wanted to like we can bring back something to change the

Good idea, Rick, but we just want to make look into it to see if there was like dedication that restricted it or I don't know. Just make sure just to investigate it. So like not my fault. All right, it's been moved and seconded. L It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you everybody. Good night. Silly, silly. Record. I know.